28 INSECTA. 



The habits of the locust give the best explanation of the 

 great size and peculiar form of the hind legs. Though 

 good fliers, these insects are pre-eminently jumpers, 

 and this habit has enlarged and lengthened their legs, 

 as in the parallel cases of animals which use their legs 

 in the same way, like leaping mice or kangaroos. 

 Bipeds also have enlarged limbs from the sime causes, 

 like the great reptiles of the Trias, the existi-jg types 

 of birds and man. 



Encourage children to watch living locusts. Note 

 how one alights ; the short, strong claws take firm 

 hold of the grass blade, and the cushions of the feet 

 adhere to it, so that the little creature is poised 

 securely. When it wishes to change position, the 

 adhesion of the cushions to the grass serves as a noint 

 of resistance, while the powerful muscles of the long 

 hind legs are brought into actior, and the body is 

 shot forward to many times the insect's height. 



The invariable adaptation of an animal to the life it 

 leads is one of nature's most instructive lessons, and 

 can be discovered and appreciated by every pupil, but 

 never through oral teaching or from the reading of 

 books. Better a child should learn to handle one 

 animal, to see and know its structure and how it lives 

 and moves, than to go through the whole animal king- 

 dom with the best text-book, under the best teacher, 

 aided by the best charts ever made. The former 

 would have learned what real knowledge is, and how 

 to get it, while the latter would have simply learned 

 how to pass at his school examination. 



The organs of locomotion studied in the preceding 

 Guides on Invertebrates were found to be adapted for 



