exploits the batrachian or the
reptile with no less animation, he accepts without hesitation
extraordinary finds, probably unknown to his race, as witness a certain
Gold-fish, a red Chinese Carp, whose body, placed in one of my cages,
was instantly considered an excellent tit-bit and buried according to
the rules. Nor is butcher's meat despised. A mutton-cutlet, a strip of
beefsteak, in the right stage of maturity, disappeared beneath the
soil, receiving the same attention as those which were lavished on the
Mole or the Mouse. In short, the Necrophorus has no exclusive
preferences; anything putrid he conveys underground.

The maintenance of his industry, therefore, presents no sort of
difficulty. If one kind of game be lacking, some other--the first to
hand--will very well replace it. Neither is there much trouble in
establishing the site of his industry. A capacious dish-cover of wire
gauze is sufficient, resting on an earthen pan filled to the brim with
fresh, heaped sand. To obviate criminal attempts on the part of the
Cats, whom the game would not fail to tempt, the cage is installed in a
closed room with glazed windows, which in winter is the refuge of the
plants and in summer an entomological laboratory.

Now to work. The Mole lies in the centre of the enclosure. The soil,
easily shifted and homogeneous, realizes the best conditions for
comfortable work. Four Necrophori, three males and a female, are there
with the body. They remain invisible, hidden beneath the carcass, which
from time to time seems to return to life, shaken from end to end by
the backs of the workers. An observer not in the secret would be
somewhat astonished to see the dead creature move. From time to time,
one of the sextons, almost always a male, emerges and goes the rounds
of the animal, which he explores, probing its velvet coat. He hurriedly
returns, appears again, once more investigates and creeps back under
the corpse.

The tremors become more pronounced; the carcass oscillates, while a
cushion of sand, pushed outward from below, grows up all about it. The
Mole, by reason of his own weight and the efforts of the grave-diggers,
who are labouring at their task beneath him, gradually sinks, for lack
of support, into the undermined soil.

Presently the sand which has been pushed outward quivers under the
thrust of the invisible miners, slips into the pit and covers the
interred Mole. It is a clandestine burial. The body seems to disappea