CHAPTER III. 
Insect or Reactive-Passive Locomotion. 
N his work on “ Animal Locomotion,” 
alluding to the fpeed attained by infedts, 
Pettigrew obferves as follows:— <c Everyone 
when riding on a warm fummer day muff 
have been ftruck with the cloud of flies which buzz about 
his horfe’s ears, even when the animal is urged to its 
fafteft paces : and it is no uncommon thing to fee a 
bee or a wafp endeavouring to get in at the window of a 
railway-car in full motion. * * * If a fmall infedt like a 
fly can outftrip a race-horfe, an infeSl as large as a horfe 
would travel very much fafter than a cannon-ball .” 
He alfo remarks that Leuwenhoeck “ relates a moft 
exciting chafe which he once beheld in a menagerie 
between a fwallow and a dragon-fly (Mordella). The 
infedt flew with incredible fpeed, and wheeled with fuch 
addrefs that the fwallow, notwithftanding its utmofl: 
efforts, completely failed to overtake and capture it.” 
