NATURAL THEOLOGY. 341 



their eggs in the hole. The descriptions which 

 naturalists give of this organ are such as the fol- 

 lowing: It is a sharp-pointed instrument, which, 

 in its inactive state, lies concealed in the extrem- 

 ity of the abdomen, and which the animal draws 

 out at pleasure, for the purpose of making a punc- 

 ture in the leaves, stem, or bark, of the particular 

 plant, which is suited to the nourishment of its 

 young. In a sheath, which divides and opens 

 whenever the organ is used, there is inclosed a 

 compact solid, dentated stem, along which runs a 

 gutter or groove, by which groove, after the pen- 

 etration is effected, the egg, assisted, in some cases 

 by a peristaltic motion, passes to its destined lodge- 

 ment. In the oestrum or gstd-fly, the wimble"' 

 draws out hke the pieces of a spy-glass : the last 

 piece is armed with three hooks, and is able to 

 bore through the hide of an ox. Can any thing 

 more be necessary to display the mechanism, than 

 to relate the fact? 



ill. The stings"^ of insects, though for a differ- 

 ent purpose, are, in their structure, not unlike the 

 piercer. The sharpness to which the point in all 

 of them is wrought; the temper and firmness of 

 the substance of which it is composed ; the 

 strens^th of the muscles bv which it is darted out, 

 compared with the smallness and weakness of the 

 insect, and with the soft and friable texture of the 

 rest of the body, — are properties of the sting to be 



** Whimble, or ovipositor. 



" The stings of insects are also used as ovipositors. 



29* 



