In the New Forest of England, the Stag-beetle by the rustics is called the _Devil’s Imp_, and is believed to be sent to do some evil to the corn; and woe be to this unfortunate insect when met by these superstitious foresters, for it is immediately stoned to death. A writer, in the Notes and Queries,[36] states that he saw one of these insects actually thus destroyed. Professor Bradley, of Cambridge, mentions the following remarkable instance of insect strength in a Stag-beetle. He asserts that he saw the beetle carry a wand a foot and a half long, and half an inch thick, and even fly with it to the distance of several yards.[37] Linnæus observes, that if the elephant was as strong in proportion as the Stag-beetle, it would be able to tear up rocks and level mountains.[38] Bingley has the following marvelous story of the supposed rapacity of the Stag-beetle, which, it has been remarked, if not gravely stated by the reverend editor of the Animal Biography, as related to him by one of his own intimate and intelligent friends, might have been supposed by the general reader to have been borrowed from the Travels of the veracious Munchausen. “An intimate and intelligent friend of the editor informed him that he had often found several heads of these insects together, all perfectly alive, while the abdomens were gone, and the trunks and heads were left together. How this circumstance took place he never could discover with any certainty. He supposes, however, that it must have been in consequence of the severe battles that sometimes take place among the fiercest of the insect tribes; but their mouths not seeming formed for animal food, he is at a loss to guess what becomes of their abdomens. They do not fly till most of the birds have retired to rest, and indeed if we were to suppose that any of them devoured them, it would be difficult to say why the heads or trunks should be rejected.”[39] Moufet says: “When the head (of the Stag-beetle) is cut off, the other parts of the body live long, but the head (contrary to the usual custom of insects) lives longer. This is said to be dedicated to the moon, and the head and horns of it wax with the moon, and do wane with the moon, but it is the opinion of vain astrologers.”[40]