2G4 
NATURAL HISTORY 
FLEA. 
The Flea appears by the microscope to be 
all over adorned with a curiously polished 
suit of sable armour, neatly jointed, and 
beset with multitudes of sharp pins, shaped 
almost like the quills of a porcupine, The 
head is, on either side, beautified with a 
quick and round black eye; it has six legs, 
the joints of which are so adapted, that it 
can, as it were, fold them short one with 
another; and when it leaps, springs them 
all out, and thereby exerts the whole of its 
strength at once. In the forepart of his head, 
between the two fore legs, he has two small 
long jointed feelers, or smellers, which have 
four joints, and are hairy, like those of seve- 
ral other creatures ; between these it has a 
small probe. 
