468 THE INSECT WORLD. 
carefully bury carcasses left on the soil. As soon as they smell a 
field-mouse, a mole, or a fish in a state of decomposition, they 
come by troops to bury it, getting under the carcass, hollow- 
ing out the ground with their legs, and projecting the rubbish 
¥ 
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Fig. 453.—Chiasognathus Grantii. 
they dig out in all directions. Little by little the carcass sinks ;__ 
at.the end of twenty-four hours it has generally disappeared into 
a hole five inches in depth, but the Mecrophori sink it still lower | 
—as far as from seven to ten inches below the surface. They 


