EATING INSECTS. 



157 



it does not retract its paws, but holds them stretched 

 out, and waits again till the insect is within its 

 reach, when it springs up and seizes it. Should the 

 insect go far from the spot, it flies or crawls after it 

 slowly on the ground, like a cat; and, when the in- 

 sect stops, it erects itself as before*. 



Praying Mantis (Mantis religiosa). 



The cannibal propensities of some of the preceding 

 herbivorous insects may be illustrated by what occurs 

 among larger animals, particularly the order of gnaw- 

 ing quadrupeds (Glires, LINN., Rodentia, Cuv.). 

 Among these, the mouse lives chiefly among grain, 

 and the rabbit (Lepus cuniculus) upon greens ; but 

 when their natural food fails, or some apparently 

 unnatural appetite is developed by disease, they will 

 sometimes exhibit carnivorous habits. In this way 

 we had once a large box of insects destroyed by mice, 

 who ate, indiscriminately, the soft feathery wings of 

 butterflies and the hard wing-cases (elytra) of 

 * Anim. Biog. iv. 49. 



