310 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. If a 

 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. Peters in Rome, over the Mini- 

 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 

 ^weet-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 went; 

 Kennst du es wohl? O lass uns eilig zieh'n, 

 Und schnell zuriick in unsrc Heimath flich'n!" 



