INSECTS* 237 
more wonderful for its various uses than the ele- 
phant’s, and which to some serves as an alembic for 
the distillation of a syrup man could never imi- 
tate. To others it performs the office of a tongue ; 
many employ it as a drill for piercing ; and the 
generality use it as a reed for suction. Several 
whose heads are fortified with a trunk, a saw, or 
a pair of pincers, carry in the other extremity of 
their bodies an auger, which they lengthen and 
turn at discretion ; and by those means dig com- 
modious habitations for their families in the heart 
of fruits, under the bark of trees, in the substance 
of leaves or buds, and frequently in the hardest 
wood itself. Most of them have excellent eyes, and 
have likewise the additional benefit of a couple of 
horns, or antenna ? , that defend them, and which 
as the animal moves along, especially in the dark, 
prove the way, and discover, by a quick and deb cate 
sensation, what would defile, drown, or endanger 
them. If these horns are moistened by any inju- 
rious liquor, or bend by the resistance of a solid 
body, the animal is warned of the danger, and 
turns another way. Some of these horns are com- 
posed of small knots, like those on the head of 
cray-fish ; others terminate in the form of a comb: 
a third sort are covered with little plumes, or tufted 
with velvet, in order to be preserved from humidity. 
Besides these and many other benefits, which vary 
according to the species, most insects have also the 
gift of flying ; some, as the dragon-fly, have four 
large wings, which correspond with the length of 
