he second time, a male appears and makes a round of exploration.
A boring is effected in loose earth, close beside the brick. This is a
trial excavation, to learn the nature of the soil, a narrow well, of
no great depth, into which the insect plunges to half its length. The
well-sinker returns to the other workers, who arch their backs, and
the load progresses a finger's-breadth towards the point recognized as
favourable. Have we done the trick this time? No, for after a while
the Mouse recoils. There is no progress towards a solution of the
difficulty.

Now two males come out in search of information, each of his own
accord. Instead of stopping at the point already sounded, a point most
judiciously chosen, it seemed, on account of its proximity, which
would save laborious carting, they precipitately scour the whole area
of the cage, trying the soil on this side and on that and ploughing
superficial furrows in it. They get as far from the brick as the
limits of the enclosure permit.

They dig, by preference, against the base of the cover; here they make
several borings, without any reason, so far as I can see, the bed of
soil being everywhere equally assailable away from the brick; the
first point sounded is abandoned for a second, which is rejected in
its turn. A third and fourth are tried; then another. At the sixth
point the choice is made. In all these cases the excavation is by no
means a grave destined to receive the Mouse, but a mere trial boring,
of inconsiderable depth and of the diameter of the digger's body.

Back again to the Mouse, who suddenly shakes, swings, advances,
recoils, first in one direction, then in another, until in the end the
hillock of sand is crossed. Now we are free of the brick and on
excellent soil. Little by little the load advances. This is no cartage
by a team hauling in the open, but a jerky removal, the work of
invisible levers. The body seems to shift of its own accord.

This time, after all those hesitations, the efforts are concerted; at
least, the load reaches the region sounded far more rapidly than I
expected. Then begins the burial, according to the usual method. It is
one o'clock. It has taken the Necrophori halfway round the clock to
ascertain the condition of the locality and to displace the Mouse.

In this experiment it appears, in the first place, that the males play
a major part in the affairs of the household. Better-equipped,
perhaps, than their mates, they make i