of «=f NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 
ringlets and six feet, the extremities of which are provided 
with bristles and two claws, by which the flea produces a 
tickling sensation, when walking, upon the skin. Its hind 
pair of feet are much the longest, and endowed with ex- 
traordinary strength, in proportion to the size of the animal, 
which enables it to make as long journeys and in as quick 
time as if it had wings and could fly. We have already 
alluded to its wonderful feat of leaping a distance two hun- 
dred times longer than its body—a feat only realized by ap- 
plying its magnitude to man or other larger animals. Ifa 
man five feet high was able to do the same thing, he could 
jump a thousand feet without trouble, and it would be a 
mere trifle for him to jump up over the cupola of St. Paul’s 
Church in London, over St. Peter’s in Rome, over the Mun- 
ster in Strasburg, over the steeple of St. Stephen’s in Vien- 
na, or over any of the Pyramids of Egypt, which, averaging 
only a height of five hundred feet, would consequently re- 
quire only half the bodily force. 
The flea, however, is short-lived, and generally dies two 
or three days after having deposited her eggs. These in- 
sects are natives of Europe and Asia, where, in many lo- 
calities, they are very troublesome, and from whence they 
have emigrated to North America. Our unpleasant and 
changeable climate, however, does not agree with them as 
well as their own native climate, and hence their number 
is quite small in comparison. <A certain poet gives us the 
song of a young flea who had emigrated to this country 
from Prussia, and thus expresses his dissatisfaction to his 
sweet-heart in his abominable Berlin dialect : 
% 
- “ Kennst du nunmehr das Land, wo Dorngestripp und Disteln bliih’n, 
Im frost’gen Wald nur eckelhafte Tannenzapfen gliih’n, 
Der Schierling tief, und hoch der Sumach steht, 
Ein rauher Wind vom schwarzen Himmel weht; 
Kennst du es wohl? O lass uns eilig zieh’n, 
Und schnell zuriick in unsre Heimath flich’n!” 
