INSECTS : WINGS AND THEIE APPENDAGES. Y9 



as to carry the insect thirty or five and thirty feet in 

 the second. In the same space of time, observes Mr. 

 Kirby, a race-horse could clear only ninety feet, which 

 is at the rate of more than a mile a minute. Our little 

 fly, in her swiftest flight, will in the same space of time 

 go more than the third of a mile. Now compare the in- 

 finite difference of the size of the two animals (ten mil- 

 lions of the fly would hardly counterpoise one racei'), 

 and how wonderful will the velocity of this minute 

 creature appear ! Did the fly equal the race-horse in 

 size, and retain its present powers in the ratio of its 

 magnitude, it would traverse the globe with the rapid- 

 ity of lightning.* 



Bees, again, are accomplished masters of aerial mo- 

 tion. The Humble-bees, notwithstanding their heavy 

 bodies, are the most powerful fliers of this class. The 

 same excellent entomologist tells us that they " traverse 

 the air in segments of a circle, the arc of which is al- 

 ternately to right and left. The rapidity of their flight 

 is so great that, could it be calculated, it would be 

 found, the size of the creature considered, far to exceed 

 that of any bird, as has been proved by the observa- 

 tions of a traveller in a railway carriage proceeding at 

 the rate of twenty miles an hour, which was accom- 

 panied, though the wind was against them, for a con- 

 siderable distance by a Humble-bee {Bomhus subinter- 

 rwptus), not merely with the same rapidity, but even 

 greater, as it not unfrequently flew to and fro about 

 the carriage, or described zig-zag lines in its flight. 

 The aerial movements of the Hive-bee are more distinct 

 and leisurely." f 



You have doubtless often admired the noble Dragon- 

 * Intr. to Entom. Lett. xxii. | Ibid. 



