; but, before setting forth
these, let us examine the case when the ground bristles with slender
brushwood, which holds the corpse at a short distance from the ground.
Will the find thus hanging where it chances to fall remain unemployed?
Will the Necrophori pass on, indifferent to the superb morsel which
they see and smell a few inches above their heads, or will they make
it drop from its gibbet?

Game does not abound to such a point that it can be despised if a few
efforts will obtain it. Before I see the thing happen, I am persuaded
that it will fall, that the Necrophori, often confronted with the
difficulties of a body not lying on the soil, must possess the
instinct to shake it to the ground. The fortuitous support of a few
bits of stubble, of a few interlaced twigs, so common in the fields,
cannot put them off. The drop of the suspended body, if placed too
high, must certainly form part of their instinctive methods. For the
rest, let us watch them at work.

I plant in the sand of the cage a meagre tuft of thyme. The shrub is
at most some four inches in height. In the branches I place a Mouse,
entangling the tail, the paws and the neck among the twigs to increase
the difficulty. The population of the cage now consists of fourteen
Necrophori and will remain the same until the close of my
investigations. Of course they do not all take part simultaneously in
the day's work: the majority remain underground, dozing or occupied in
setting their cellars in order. Sometimes only one, often two, three
or four, rarely more, busy themselves with the corpse which I offer
them. To-day, two hasten to the Mouse, who is soon perceived overhead
on the tuft of thyme.

They gain the top of the plant by way of the trelliswork of the cage.
Here are repeated, with increased hesitation, due to the inconvenient
nature of the support, the tactics employed to remove the body when
the soil is unfavourable. The insect props itself against a branch,
thrusting alternately with back and claws, jerking and shaking
vigorously until the point whereat it is working is freed from its
fetters. In one brief shift, by dint of heaving their backs, the two
collaborators extricate the body from the tangle. Yet another shake;
and the Mouse is down. The burial follows.

There is nothing new in this experiment: the find has been treated
just as though it lay on soil unsuitable for burial. The fall is the
result of an attempt to transport the load.

The