82 THE STUDY OF ANIMAL LIFE 



has, however, been a good deal exaggerated. 

 Lizards run along very quickly, and are to be 

 numbered among the most rapid moving animals 

 on the British list, whilst Frogs and Toads swim 

 splendidly when in the tadpole state, but mostly 

 resort to hopping and shuffling when they become 

 older and wiser. 



Fish swim elegantly, and their spindle-shaped 

 bodies are well calculated to permit them to skim 

 through the water with ease and grace; insects 

 creep, crawl, hop, jump, and fly, and even if 

 one sets himself out to consider the powers of 

 locomotion possessed by British insects alone, he 

 would find his time well occupied. 



Spiders are expert tight-rope walkers and bal- 

 loonists, as those who have watched these intelli- 

 gent creatures must recognise; Crabs, Lobsters, 

 Crayfish, and similar animals creep and scuttle 

 along, and although ungainly out of their natural 

 element, are fairly active when within it. 



Many kinds of Shellfish possess very few loco- 

 motive powers, just fixing themselves in a certain 

 chosen spot for life, but when we come lower down 

 in the scale we meet with a whole host of wonder- 

 ful forms of animal life whose every movement is 

 attended with a fund of interest and wonder, and 

 whose remarkable life-history a high-power micro- 

 scope can alone reveal. 



Space does not permit of an extension of this 



