190 LITTLE FOLKS 
the common one is Blow Fly, and of course, she has an imposing 
name in italics, which means Vigilant Flesh Fly. 
There's one curious thing about her. She don't just lay her 
eesrs like other flies, and trouble herself no more about them ! She 
has in her broad gray and black body a roll of eggs. I can't tell how 
many, some naturalists say one hundred thousand Well, fifteen 
or thirty of these eggs drop into a sort of bag, still in her body, 
and are hatched there. So when Madame Blow Fly finds a piece 
of naughty meat, she just puts her live hungry babies on it, and 
proceeds to hatch out more, while she is hunting a dinner for them. 
She only lives till she has hatched out all the eggs — three or four 
weeks. 
One branch of the army of servants busies itself in burying 
dead animals, such as birds, mice, or toads. Did you ever wonder 
why you never find a dead bird in the woods ? It's all owing to 
these industrious little servants, the Burying Beetles. They dig a 
hole under the dead creature, and when it is sunk low enough, they 
lay their eggs in it, and cover it up. On the opposite page is a 
picture of them ; they are burying a dead rat. 
So thorough are they, that nothing can escape them. Once, a 
naturalist that I read of, wanted to dry the body of a toad. He 
stuck it up on a stick to get it out of the way of these little fellows. 
But they were not discouraged, they dug around the stick till it fell 
down, and then buried the toad, stick and all. 
Among the busiest of these little workers are the Ants. In 
hot countries where there are a great many of them, nothing can 
escape them. Anything that is dead, animal or vegetable, is at 
once devoured. And they don't wait for small animals to be dead 
either, they just attack live ones. 
Perhaps you have heard of one kind called Chasseur Ants, of 
the West Indies. They travel in regular armies, of uncounted 
millions, and destroy every live creature small enough for them to 
overpower. In that hot climate there are lots of insects that infest 
houses. Besides rats and mice and flies, as we have, there are 
cockroaches, wasps, scorpions, snakes and dozens of other crea- 
tures. Well, when these Ants enter a town, the people open every 
drawer and box and leave the house. 
The Ants go through everything. Kill and carry off every 
creature in the house. They are regarded as very valuable scaven- 
gers, as indeed, they are. 
