its course towards the tail, devouring all the fat and muscular parts not absolutely essential to motion and life; and, by the time the caterpillar of the moth is full grown, and changes to a chrysalis, the maggot of the ichneumon is full grown also, and occupies more than half of its interior.

132. It is worthy of remark, that this maggot thus inhabiting for weeks the body of a living caterpillar, and devouring its living flesh, always instinctively avoids those parts which are essential to life, as though aware that the cessation of life in the caterpillar would ensure its own death, as it could not subsist on the putrifying carcase.

133. After laying quiescent for many days, and often weeks, and sometimes through the whole winter, the skin of the maggot is thrown off, and it becomes a chrysalis, exhibiting very exactly the shape and appearance of the future fly; the antennæ and legs being placed before it, the wings small, and folded by its side, and the ovipositor being turned up a little over its back.

134. The chrysalis is without motion, and much resembles that of the bee: in both instances the limbs are quite distinct from the body, and not united with it in a hard crustaceous case, as is the case in the chrysalis of the silk-worm : this kind of chrysalis is said to be necromorphous (pupa necromorpha), from its resemblance to the perfect insect, with its limbs neatly arranged, and motionless, as in death.

135. The chrysalis state lasts but a few days, and the perfect insect emerges from it; after this first escape, it has to penetrate the shell of the chrysalis of the tiger-moth, in which it is still imprisoned, and which is made much harder by the drying of the portions of animal matter which the maggot of the ichneumon had left unconsumed.

136. The ichneumon overcomes this difficulty by gnawing a hole with its sharp and strong jaws, generally in that thin portion of the shell which covers the wing of the future insect : almost immediately on emerging, the ichneumon vibrates its wings and flies away.

137. The caterpillar of the tiger-moth is preyed on in a similar manner by the maggot of a two-winged fly; and this maggot, while thus devouring the interior of the caterpillar, is itself a prey to a minute kind of ichneumon, twenty of which sometimes feed in the maggot of a single fly.

138. The manner in which the egg of this little ichneumon is introduced into the maggot of the fly, is at present unknown; but as the fly fastens its egg exteriorly on the skin of the caterpillar, and does not perforate the skin, and deposit it inside, as in the case of the great ichneumon before described, it is supposed the small ichneumon's egg is laid in the egg of the fly while the latter is adhering to the skin of the caterpillar.

139. The egg of the fly, which is placed on the neck of the caterpillar, the only part from which the caterpillar could not remove it, is very conspicuous to an observer: in this situation, we cannot wonder, then, the little ichneumon should discover it; nor does it appear an improbable supposition, that the little creature seizes this opportunity of piercing its shell with her oviduct, and depositing her egg amidst its contents.

140. The maggot of the fly, as soon as hatched, pierces the skin of the caterpillar, and commences devouring, carrying within it a horde of insidious parasites, which, though they interfere not with the due performance of its appointed work of destruction, yet, in the end, so weaken it, that it never arrives at perfection.

141. Ichneumons of different kinds attack the eggs, larvæ, chrysalides, or imagines, of nearly all insects; and very ingenious experiments and calculations have proved, that four out of every five eggs that are laid, are prevented from arriving at maturity by parasites attacking them in one or other of these stages.

142. THE burying-beetle is about an inch in length; it is black, with two bands across its back of a bright orange colour; these bands are formed by two large blotches on each of the upper wings though in such a gay dress, it is a disgusting insect, being so fœtid that the hands smell for hours after handling it; and if it crawls on woollen clothes, which are not washed, the smell continues for days.

143. The burying-beetle lays its eggs in the bodies of putrefying dead animals, which, when practicable, it buries in the ground. In Russia, where the poor people are buried but a few inches below the surface of the ground, the buryingbeetles avail themselves of the bodies for this

* From Rusticus' MS.; with permission.

purpose, and the graves are pierced with their holes in every direction; at evening, hundreds of these beetles may be seen in the church-yards, either buzzing over recent graves, or emerging from them.

144. The burying-beetle in this country seldom finds so convenient a provision for him, and he is under the necessity of taking much more trouble; he sometimes avails himself of dead dogs and horses, but these are too great rarities to be his constant resort: the usual objects of his search are dead mice, rats, birds, frogs, and moles; of these, a bird is most commonly obtained.

145. In the neighbourhood of towns, every kind of garbage that is thrown out attracts these beetles as soon as it begins to smell; and it is not unusual to see them settling in our streets, enticed by the grateful odour of such substances.

146. The burying-beetles hunt in couples, male and female; and when six or eight are found in a large animal, they are almost sure to be males and females, in equal numbers: they hunt by scent only, the chase being mostly performed when no other sense would be very available, viz. in the night.

147. When they have found a bird, great comfort is expressed by the male, who wheels round and round above it, like an eagle,-the female settles on it at once, without this testimonial of satisfaction; the male at last settles