342 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



I have frequently heard living monflers an- 

 nounced for exhibition at our fairs ; but I never 

 had the fortune to fee a fingle one, whatever 

 trouble I could take to that eifed. One day a 

 placard was difplayed, at the fair of Saint Ovide, 

 " a cow with three eyes, and a Iheep with fix 

 *' feet." I had a curiofity to fee thefe animals, 

 and to examine into the ufe which they made of 

 organs and members, to my apprchenfion, entirely 

 fuperfluous. How, faid I to myfelf, Nature plant 

 fix legs under the body of a fheep, when four were 

 amply fufficient to fupport it } At the fame time, 

 I began to recoiled:, that the fly, who is much 

 lighter than the flieep, had fix ; and this refledion, 

 I acknowledge, ftaggered me. But having one 

 day obferved a fly which had alighted on the paper 

 before me, I found fhe frequently employed her- 

 felf in alternately brufhing her head and wings 

 with the two fore and the two hinder feet. I then 

 evidently perceived, that fhe had occafion for fix 

 feet, in order to have the fupport of four, while the 

 other two were applied to the bru filing fervice, 

 efpecially on a perpendicular plane. Having 

 caught, and examined her by the microfcope, I 

 difcovered that the two middle feet had no bruQi, 

 but that the other four had. I farther obferved, 

 that her body was covered over with particles of 

 duft, which adhere to it, in the atmofphere through 



which 



