22 LETTERS ON ENTOMOLOGY. 
he placed two frogs. In less than twelve hours one 
of the frogs was buried by two of the beetles ; the 
other two ran about the whole day, as if busied in 
measuring the dimensions of the remaining corpse, 
which on the third day was also found buried. 
He then put in a dead linnet, and a pair soon 
began, by throwing the earth from under it, and 
pulling at the feathers from below. The male 
having driven the female away, continued the 
work for five hours, digging underneath, then 
mounting on it to tread it down, then retiring 
below to pull it down. At last, quite tired, it 
came out and leaned its head beside the bird 
upon the earth for a full hour, and then again 
set to work. In two days the bird was com- 
pletely buried. The object of these industrious 
insects is by this means to procure food for their 
young; for if the bodies are dug up in about 
six days, they will be found swarming with 
maggots. M. Gleditsch continued to add other 
small dead animals, which were all sooner or 
later buried ; and the result of his experiment 
was, that in fifty days four beetles had interred, 
in the very small space of earth allotted to them, 
twelve carcasses : viz. four frogs, three small 
birds, two fishes, one mole, and two grasshoppers, 
besides the entrails of a fish, and two morsels of 
