Book-Lovers. 89 



closets and pantries, and feed upon sugar and cake and 

 pastry, but has latterly taken to bookcases, where it leads 

 an easy, comfortable life, without fear of molestation. 



So delicately constructed are the Lepismas, and so seem- 

 ingly feeble the breath of life which animates their frail houses 

 of clay, that nature has endowed them with qualities of mind 

 and body which eminently fit them for the part they have 

 to play in the world. She has made them lovers of darkness 

 rather than light, endowed them with keenness of vision and 

 hearing truly wonderful, and given them a celerity of move- 

 ment which enables them to outstrip in speed the fleetest 

 of their insect-enemies, and even to baffle the well-directed 

 efforts of man for their destruction. The silver-coated armor 

 with which they are invested is so glossy and smooth that 

 they can slip into a crevice in the wall or floor with the 

 utmost ease and facility. From their actions it would seem 

 that they were always on the alert, for when peril is imminent 

 they do not run aimlessly about for a place of security, but 

 know just where to find it with the least possible expenditure 

 of time and physical strength. Every nook and cranny of 

 their appropriated domain is as well known to these very 

 humble of God's creatures as some forest-tract of country to 

 one skilled in wood-craft. Never have I studied the behavior 

 of Lepisma that I have not been deeply impressed with the 

 intelligence of its actions. There have always been displayed 

 a purpose and an aim, which showed as plainly as could be 

 that no blind instinct was the cause of a conduct so rational 

 and human-like. 



