150 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Wonderful strength and power of springing. 



can, as it were, fold them up one within another, 

 and when it leaps they all spring out at once^ 

 whereby its whole strength is exerted, and the 

 body thrown, comparatively, to a considerable 

 distance. See the plate of Insects, fig. 1. Its 

 power of springing is wonderful for its size, 

 being capable of bounding more in height than 

 two hundred times the bulk of its whole body; 

 and some naturalists have been induced to attri- 

 bute to it a no less extraordinary degree of cun- 

 ning and sagacity, for they say that it makes its 

 approach for an attack with as much caution, as 

 it effectuates its escape with art and velocity. 

 But this is possibly allowing the flea a greater 

 share of instinct than it, in reality, has any pre- 

 tensions to; for although it certainly appears to 

 exert a variety of manoeuvres to save its life, and 

 to preserve its freedom, yet that may probably 

 be accounted for in the diminutiveness of its size, 

 and the elasticity of its limbs; and as to its pre- 

 caution in making its attacks, whatever individu- 

 als may have supposed they had observed, the 

 flea hastily approaches the body that is warm, 

 and greedily attacks those pores through which 

 the blood can most easily be procured. The 

 strength of this animal is also astonishing for its 

 size. A flea will drag after it a chain a hundred 

 times heavier than itself: and, to compensate for 

 this force, will eat ten times its own weight of 

 provisions in a day. Mr. Boverich, an ingenious 

 watchmaker who some years ago lived in the 



