194 STRANGE MODES OF PROGRESS. 



bark of trees, and the hollow stems of decaying plants, and 

 provincial!/ termed * Maggy Manyfeet,' performs its serpent- 

 like motion by extending alternate portions of its numerous 

 legs beyond the line of the body, while those in the intervals 

 preserve a vertical direction."* 



The walking of those ten-footed caterpillars called ' Loop- 

 ers,' or 'Geometers,' is another peculiar mode of progression, f 

 wherein the steps consist, as is imported by their name, of a 

 series of loopings, at each of which, head and tail meeting, 

 the body is arched into the form of a Greek fi. 



The fly's walk against gravity, that phenomenon by common 

 observers so little noted, by careful ones so contradictorily 

 explained, and imitated only by some others of the insect race, 

 is sufficient of itself to confer upon that race a remarkable 

 superiority over all others as walking animals. 



Where, above all, shall we find walkers upon water ? No- 

 where, save in the ponds and pools and ditches and rivulets, 

 whereon, almost daily from spring to autumn, we may see 

 gnats and Tipulce, lightly skimming, water-bugs gliding with 

 or against the current, whirlwigs describing circles, and all 

 performing their varied evolutions upon liquid plains with far 

 more ease and dexterity than the most accomplished skater, 

 when those plains are rendered solid. 



In air, as well as on land and water, various insects exhibit 



* { Insect Transformations.' 



t Not entirely confined to insects, as the little fresh-water hydra (a simple polype) 

 moves in a similar manner. 



