PHILOSOPHY 01' ZOOLOGY. 



the waters, they could not perform the ordinary (unctions 

 of existence, unless possessed of faculties fitting them for re- 

 sisting such disturbing forces. Let us therefore contem- 

 plate the provisions made for enabling animals to remain at 

 rest, previous to an examination of their displays of the fa- 

 culty of locomotion. 



1. Proncness. Many animals protect themselves against 

 the disturbing movements of the air and water, by placing 

 their bodies in a prone position.. They thus diminish the 

 extent of their resisting surface. To give still greater effi- 

 cacy to this protecting attitude, they retire to valleys, 

 woods, or dens, on the earth, or to the deepest places in the 

 waters ; and are thus able, by the weight of their own bo- 

 dies and the advantages of their position, to outlive the ele- 

 mental war. The Zetlandic fishermen have repeatedly as- 

 sured me, that cod-fish swallow stones before a storm, to 

 enable them to rest more securely at the bottom of the sea, 

 during the continuance of the agitated waves. 



But there are other animals, which, while they are equal- 

 ly cautious to make choice of proper situations for their 

 safety, employ in addition, peculiar organs with which they 

 are provided, to connect themselves more securely with the 

 bases on which they rest. 



2. Grasping. The most simple of these expedients, 

 Grasping, is displayed by bats, birds and insects, in the 

 employment of their toes, with their claws, in seizing the 

 subjects of their support. In birds, the assumption and 

 continuance of this attitude is accomplished by a mechani- 

 cal process; so that there is no expenditure of muscular 

 energy. In every case of this kind, the claws are so ad- 

 mirably adapted to the station of the animal, that the de- 

 tention of the body in the same spot during this state of 

 rest, is accompanied with little exertion. 



