MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 311 
have more than once experienced, from their extreme 
agility. I lost one from this circumstance two years 
ago that I found upon the sea-lark (Charadrius Hiati- 
cula, 1.) and which appeared to be non-descript. 
Another most singular insect, which though apterous 
is nearly related to these—I mean the louse of the bat 
(Nycteribia Vespertilionis, Latr.), is still more remark- 
abe for its swiftness. Its legs, as appears from the ob- 
servations of Colonel Montague, are fixed in an unusual 
position on the upper side of the trunk. “It trans- 
ports itself,” to use the words of the gentleman just 
mentioned, ‘ with such celerity, from one part of the 
animal it inhabits to the opposite and most distant, al- 
though obstructed by the extreme thickness of the fur, 
“* When two or three 
that it is not readily taken.” 
were put into a small phial, their agility appeared in- 
conceivably great; for, as their feet are incapable of 
fixing upon so smooth a body, their whole exertion was 
employed in laying hold of each other; and in this 
most curious struggle they appeared actually flying in 
circles: and when the bottle was reclined, they would 
frequently pass from one end to the other with asto- 
nishing velocity, accompanied by the same gyrations: 
if by accident they escaped each other, they very soon 
became motionless: and as quickly were the whole put 
in motion again by the least touch of the bottle, or the 
movement of an individual*?.—Incredibly great also is 
the rapidity with which a little reddish mite, with two 
black dots on the anterior part of its back (Gamasus 
Baccarum, F.), common upon strawberries, moves along. 
@ Zinn. Trans. xi. 13. 
