16 Mr. Rennie on the Cleanliness of Animals. 



daceous beetles, whence I conjectured it might belong to some 

 of their numerous families ; but lest I might be deceived in 

 this, and that after all it might be a vegetable feeder, I put 

 some of the oak bark, moss, fern, and honeysuckle, along with 

 it into a collecting-box. Into the same box I afterwards put 

 several specimens of small snails, with pellucid shells, which I 

 found in the same locality a circumstance which led me to the 

 discovery of one of those facts that, after eluding direct research, 

 are often the result of accident. 



It was not till next day that I looked into the box, when 

 I perceived that none of the vegetable substances had been 

 touched, for the snails had glued themselves to the lid, ac- 

 cording to their usual custom when put into a dry place ; and 

 though the little stranger was sufficiently lively, and walked 

 about in all directions, nothing within reach appeared to suit 

 its taste. After watching it for some time, my attention was 

 drawn to some very singular movements which it made with 

 its tail, and which the reader will understand better if he has 

 observed how the common earwig, or the insect popularly called 

 the devil's coach-horse, (Goerius olens, STEPHENS,) bends up 

 its tail over its back, somewhat in the manner of a spaniel when 

 it trips along well pleased before its master. The forked tail 

 of the earwig, however, as well as that of the goerius, is said to 

 be used in assisting to unfold its long and closely-folded wings, 

 an operation which I have never myself witnessed ; but as 

 the strange insect had evidently no wings, this could not be the 

 design of the movements to which I have alluded. I have more 

 than once seen a female moth strip the down from her body to 

 furnish her eggs with a warm covering, for which purpose she 

 bent in the required directions an instrument like a pair of 

 tweezers, situated at the extremity of the tail ; but in the in- 

 stance in question this could not be the case, as there was no 

 down on the body : and yet, upon closer inspection, it seemed 

 to be pulling off something very assiduously from the parts 

 upon which the extremity of the tail was turned back. 



There appeared to be something so uncommon in these 

 movements, that my curiosity was excited to observe them 

 more minutely ; and as the creature was not at all timid, I 

 could easily observe it through a glass of some power. The 



