190 MOVEMENTS OF DUBIOUS USE. 



The chewing of the cud by the cow, and the washing of 

 her face by the cat, are motions to which others employed at 

 certain times by certain insects have been compared. One can 

 hardly, indeed, take notice of a fly in her frequent occupation, 

 that of stroking over her head and eyes with her fore feet as 

 she basks in a sunny window, without being reminded of Puss 

 washing over her ears as she blinks at the fire ; and it would 

 seem that the quadruped and the hexapod perform these 

 similar actions for a similar purpose, with a view, namely, to 

 personal proprete, a virtue wherein insects particularly excel. 

 Again, there is a certain movement exhibited by the grass- 

 hopper and liis kind a continual champing of the jaws when 

 there is nothing edible between them, which a common, at 

 least a cursory observer, is not very likely to discern ; but if he 

 did, it is not improbable that he might be led thereby, as was 

 once a celebrated naturalist,* to assign to the grasshopper a 

 place among the ruminating animals ; whereas this mumbling 

 of the leaping, long-eared grazer, the stroking of the domestic 

 fly, and other somewhat similar performances in other insects, 

 have been attributed, on seemingly better grounds, to the same 

 originating cause the desire, namely, on the part of the per- 

 former to rid its feet, or flexible antennae, of every particle of 

 dust or other defilement. 



While speaking of insect movements which have their 

 seeming parallels among the larger animals, we may notice the 



* S wammerdain. 



