43° TH£ FLIES. 



many of the species come for warmth into houses, 

 and swarm in the windows. At first they appear 

 very brisk and alert ; but as they grow torpid they 

 are seen to move with difficulty, and at last are 

 scarcely able to lift their legs, which seem as if 

 glued to the glass ; and by degrees many do actu- 

 ally stick on till they die in the place. It has been 

 observed that some of the Flies, besides their sharp 

 hooked nails, have also skinny palms or flaps to 

 their feet, whereby they are enabled to stick on glass 

 and other smooth bodies, and to walk on ceilings 

 with their backs downward, by means of the pres- 

 sure of the atmosphere on those flaps ; the weight 

 of which they easily overcome in warm weather, 

 when they are brisk and alert. But towards the 

 end of the year this resistance becomes too mighty 

 for their diminished strength ; and we see Flies la- 

 bouring along, and lugging their feet in windows as 

 if they stuck fast to the glass , and it is with the ut- 

 must difficulty they can draw one foot after another, 

 and disengage their hollow caps from the slippery 

 surface. On a principle exactly similar to this it 

 is that boys, by way of amusement, carry heavy 

 weights, by only a piece of wet leather at the end 

 of a string, clapped close to the surface of a stone. 



It is a very extraordinary fact that Flies have 

 been known to remain immersed in strong liquors, 

 even for several months, and afterward, on being 

 taken out, and exposed to the air, have again re- 

 vived. Some, we are told by Dr. Franklin, were 

 drowned in Madeira wine, when bottled in Virginia 

 to be sent to England. At the opening of a bottle 



