t06 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Bombardier's defence against enemies. 



eyes are black, and the abdomen and wing cases 

 blue bordering on black: the latter are marked 

 with broad but shallow stria?. This insect is 

 sometimes found in England : it keeps itself con- 

 cealed among stones, and seems to make little 

 use of its wings. When it moves it is by a sort 

 of jump; and, when it is touched, we are sur- 

 prised with a noise resembling the discharge of 

 a musket in miniature, during which a blue 

 smoke may be perceived to proceed from its ex- 

 tremity. The insect may at any time be made 

 to play off its artillery by scratching its back 

 with a needle. Rolander (who first made these 

 observations) says, it can give twenty discharges 

 successively. A bladder, placed near its poste- 

 rior extremity, is the arsenal that contains its 

 store. This is its chief defence against its ene- 

 mies; and the vapour or liquid that proceeds 

 from it is of so pungent a nature, that, if it hap- 

 pen to be discharged into the eyes, it makes 

 them smart as though brandy had been thrown 

 into them. 



There is another insect of this tribe, but three 

 or four times its size, which is the bombardier's 

 principal enemy. When pursued and fatigued, 

 the bombardier lies down in the path of his ad- 

 versary, who advances with open mouth to seize 

 him ; but on the discharge of the artillery the 

 enemy suddenly draws back, and remains for a 

 while confused, during which the bombardier 



