190 MOVEMENTS OF DUBIOUS USE. 



The chewing of the cud by the cow, and the washing of 

 her face bj the cat, are motions to which others employed at 

 certain times by certain insects have been compared. One 

 can hardly, indeed, take notice of a fly in her frequent occu- 

 pation, that of stroking over her head and eyes with her fore 

 feet as she basks in a sunny window, without being reminded 

 of Puss washing over her ears as she blinks at the fire ; and 

 it would seem that the quadruped and the hexapod perform 

 these similar actions for a similar purpose, with a view, namely, 

 to personal proprete, a virtue wherein insects particularly 

 excel. Again, there is a certain movement exhibited by the 

 grasshopper and his kind a continual champing of the jaws 

 when there is nothing edible between them, which a common, 

 at least a cursory observer, is not very likely to discern ; but 

 if he did, it is not improbable that he might be led thereby, 

 as was once a celebrated naturalist,* to assign to the grass- 

 hopper a place among the ruminating animals ; whereas this 

 mumbling of the leaping, long-eared grazer, the stroking of 

 the domestic fly, and other somewhat similar performances 

 in other insects, have been attributed, on seemingly better 

 grounds, to the same originating cause the desire, namely, 

 on the part of the performer to rid its feet, or flexible antennae, 

 of every particle of dust or other defilement. 



While speaking of insect movements which have their 

 seeming parallels among the larger animals, we may notice the 



* Swainmerdam. 



