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12s PHILOSOPHY OF ZOOLOGY. 
the waters, they could not perform the erdinary functions 
of existence, unless possessed of faculties fitting them for re- 
sisting such disturbing forces. Let us therefore contem- 
plate the provisions made for enabling animals to remain at 
rest, previous to an examination of their displays of the fa- 
culty of locomotion. 
1. Proneness.—Many animals protect themselves against 
the disturbing movements of the air and water, by placing 
their bodies in a prone position. They thus dimiish the 
extent of their resisting surface. ‘To give still greater effi- 
cacy to this protecting attitude, they retire to valleys, 
woods, or dens, on the earth, or to the deepest places in the 
waters; and are thus able, by the weight of their own bo- 
dies and the advantages of their position, to outlive the ele- 
mental war. The Zetlandic fishermen have repeatedly as 
sured me, that cod-fish swallow stones before a storm, to 
enable them to rest more securely at the bottom of the sea, 
during the continuance of the agitated waves. 
But there are other animals, which, while they are equals 
ly cautious to make choice of proper situations for their 
safety, employ in addition, peculiar organs with which they 
are provided, to connect themselves more securely with the 
bases on which they rest. 
2. Grasping.—The most simple of these expedients; 
Grasping, 1s displayed by bats, birds and insects, in the 
employment of their toes, with their claws, in seizing the 
subjects of their support. In birds, the assumption and 
continuance of this attitude is accomplished by a mechani- 
cal process; so that there is no expenditure of muscular 
energy. In every case of this kind, the claws are so ad- 
mirably adapted to the station of the animal, that the de- 
tention of the body in the same spot during this state of 
rest, 18 accompanied with httle exertion. 
