GRAVE-DIGGING BEETLE. 
274 
with small thick whitish worms, which proved to 
be the larvae of the beetles. Thus he was led to 
believe that these insects had buried the mole on 
purpose to lodge their future offspring in its body. 
Mr. Gleditsch, feeling inclined to investigate this 
curious business in a more particular manner, pro- 
vided a glass vessel half filled with moist earth, into 
which he put the four beetles already mentioned 
and their progeny. The vessel, covered with a 
cloth, was placed on the ground, and in the space 
of fifty days the four industrious grave-diggers in- 
terred the bodies of four frogs, three small birds, 
two grasshoppers, and one mole, including the en- 
trails of a fish, and two small pieces of the lungs 
of an ox. The method which these insects pursue 
to accomplish their purposse may be sufficiently 
exemplified in the body of a linnet, which, after 
being dead six hours, was placed by Mr. G. in 
the middle of the glass vessel, and in a very few 
moments was visited and examined by the beetles. 
In a few hours two of the beetles only remained 
with the bird, and the largest of these was suspected 
to be a female. After attentively surveying their 
work, they began by hollowing out a cavity of the 
size of the bird, by working underneath it, and re- 
moving the earth from the body as they proceeded. 
This they accomplished by leaning themselves 
strongly upon their collars, and bending down their 
heads to assist their efforts; thus forming, as it were, 
a rampart of mould round the linnet. The bird ap- 
peared to move alternately its head, its tail, its 
