BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 89 



propensity to leaping. The Bee, in danger of being 

 robbed of its precious stores, is armed with its .well 

 known weapon. -The female Wasp is larger and 

 stronger than the male, to enable her to survive the 

 rigour of winter ; and the strong hairy legs of the Ant 

 are no less well contrived to assist her in the inde- 

 fatigable labours of the hill, than the two claws with 

 which they are armed are for the purpose of climbing. 

 How surprising the instinct by which those little 

 creatures are taught uniformly to deposit their eggs 

 on such animal or vegetable substances, as furnish 

 a proper and plentiful supply of food for the worms 

 or caterpillars, as soon as they are hatched. That 

 those who pass into the Chrysalis or inactive state, 

 select the most proper situations and modes of con- 

 cealment; and that others, whose only metamor- 

 phosis consists in the addition of wings, surround 

 themselves while undergoing the change by an en- 

 velope of spume or froth, proceeding from their bo- 

 dy ; as the Cuckoo spit, or Froth worm. 



" The Locusts have no king, yet they go forth all 

 of them in bands;" while the solitary Spider, having 

 no wings to go to pursuit of her prey, weaveth to 

 herself a web, and watches with patience the en- 

 tanglement of a fly. Our space will not permit us 

 to dwell on the geometrical precision and mathema- 

 tical exactness, with which Bees form their combs ; 

 the wonderful ingenuity and contrivance of the 

 Wasp's nest, or the order and regularity observed 

 in the construction of the Ant hill, as well as the 

 prudence and foresight which the whole of these 

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