Par] AND SYMBOLS. 261 



If when surveyed from a short base line objects appear to have 

 changed much, we may infer that they are near ; but if the 

 base requires to be long in order to produce an effect, we may 

 equally infer that they are distant. BE. 



Social Parasites. 



The family of parasites is large, and includes representatives 

 both small and great. Some of the least powerful of animals 

 live as parasites in or upon the bodies of others, and hardly 

 any are entirely exempt. Such as are too weak to seize and 

 slaughter their peculiar prey, seek it in a dead state ; and 

 hardly has an animal perished before the carrion-feeders begin 

 their attacks. According to Audubon, the Turkey buzzard 

 gloats harmlessly over recumbent and sleeping animals in a 

 healthy state, but watches patiently by such as are wounded, 

 perishing in a morass, are ill and dying, until life is extinct, 

 and will not leave them. p. 



The Uncertain Pleasures of Parasites. 



Parasites who expect any consideration at the hands of their 

 patron are frequently deluded. The patron treats them in the 

 spirit in which the fox treats fleas. When the fox is troubled 

 with fleas, he will go into the water, at first to a small depth, 

 the water rising very little above the bottom of his belly \ the 

 fleas to avoid the water, will creep up towards the top of his 

 back. Gradually he will go deeper and deeper, till the fleas 

 actually gather upon his back, when he will sink his hinder 

 parts, gently and by degrees, below the surface of the water, till 

 the fleas are driven forward, and he will at length merge every 

 part of his body, in the same quiet way, beneath the water, 

 except his nose, on which the fleas will congregate as on an 

 island. At last he will suddenly sink his nose also and with- 

 draw, leaving the parasites to be drowned. B. 



The Parasites' Offerings. 



Parasitic plants send their roots into the substance of another 

 plant, and derive their food from its juices ; but though, like 



