EATING INSECTS. 145 



The jaws, it has been well remarked, *' are ad- 

 mirably adapted for their intended services: some 

 sharp and armed with spines and branches for tearing 

 flesh ; others hooked for seizing, and at the same 

 time hollow for suction ; some calculated like shears 

 for gnawing leaves ; others more resembling grind- 

 stones, of a strength and solidity sufficient to reduce 

 the hardest wood ; and this singularity attends the 

 major part of these insects, that they possess in fact 

 two pairs of jaws, an upper and an under pair, both 

 placed horizontally, not vertically, — the former ap- 

 parently in most cases for the seizure and mastica- 

 tion of their prey ; the latter, when hooked, for re- 

 taining and tearing, while the upper comminute it 

 previously to its being swallowed*." 



Among quadrupeds we can readily tell what food 

 an individual naturally feeds on by inspecting the 

 teeth. But amongst insects this principle is by no 

 means so obviously applicable ; for several of those 

 which are furnished with the most formidable jaws, 

 such as the stag-beetle {Lucaniis Cervus)^ feed 

 upon vegetable substances almost exclusively. We 

 say almost, for it is not a little remarkable that 

 a very great number of insects, whose natural food 

 seems to be vegetable, will occasionally prey upon 

 animals in the same way as soft-billed birds {Syl- 

 viad(E, (^c.) will feed either on berries or insects as 

 they can procure them, and as the common garden 

 snail {Helix aspersa, Muller), though it usually 

 devours leaves, will sometimes make a meal of an 

 earth-worm, as we have observed more than once f. 

 In the case of insects, we may illustrate our re- 

 mark by referring to the earwig (Forjicula auricu- 

 laria, Linn.), well known in every garden. There 



* Kirby and Spence, Intr., i. 394. 



t J. R. See also Sowerby on Helix nemoralis, in Zool. 

 Journ. 1. 285. 



o 



