LOCAL. 133 



and forests, arable lands, pasture, meadow and 

 marsh, all are thus distinguished ; every plant 

 almost is inhabited by insects appropriated to 

 it, every bird has its peculiar parasite or louse ; l 

 and not only are the living animals so infested, 

 fout their carcasses are bequeathed to a nume- 

 rous and varied army of dissecters, who soon 

 reduce them to a naked skeleton ; nay, their 

 very excrements become the habitation of the 

 grubs of sundry kinds of beetles and flies. 



But not only is the surface of the earth and its 

 vegetable clothing, thickly peopled with animals, 

 but many, even quadrupeds and reptiles, as well 

 as insects and worms, are subterranean, and seek 

 for concealment in dens, caves arid caverns, or 

 make for themselves burrows and tortuous paths 

 at various depths under the soil, or seek for 

 safety and shelter, by lurking under stones or 

 clods, and all the dark places of the earth. 



To other animals, in order to pass gradually 

 from such as are purely terrestrial, to those that 

 are aquatic, Providence has given the privilege 

 to frequent both the earth and the water ; some 

 of which may be regarded as belonging to the 

 former, and frequenting the latter, as water fowl 

 of various kinds, the amphibious rat, 2 the archi- 

 tect beaver, 3 many reptiles, and some insects ; 

 others again as belonging to the latter, and fre- 



1 Nirmus. * Lcmmus amphibius. 3 Castor Fiber. 



