fight of day effacing all the rays, it is able to fend out. Thus the hairs of horfes and of cats especially of fuch as are black, if they are rubbed in the dark, give out fparks, or a small evanefcent light. The rotten wood of the willow, fifh, and fome other fubftances likewife fhine in the dark. Thus too certain infects,, whofe light is not fenfible during the day, but when night comes they fhine like burning coals, ftars, Or lighted matches. The light of fome is fo clear that it ferves inftead of a candle in fome places, as in Brazil, by the help of two or three of them the people) can fee to fow, fpin, and even to read. By their affiftance alfo perfons travel by night; they are a flambeau that fhews them the way, and prevents them from wandering.

A

The greater part of infects are dumb; however many have organs proper for making a kind of, noife, or producing a certain found. There is as much variety observable in this noife and this found, as there is in the voices of different animals. mong birds, the nightingale fings fweetly, the crow croaks, the fwallow twitters, the owl fhrieks, the turtle cooes, the magpie chatters, and the quail and the fnipe have each their particular note. The fame difference takes place among quadrupeds: the lion roars, the ass brays, the horse neighs, the ox bellows, &c. the fame is obfervable among infects. Thofe which gnaw wood produce a found fimilar to that of the movement of a watch. The different strokes they give are fo juftly measured, and are heard one after another, at intervals fo equal, that one would almost take it for a clock; and fome have the tinkling found of a cymbal, or the ftroke of a bow given behind the bridge of a violin: others fing, hum, give a fharp acute tone, &c. All however do not produce this found in the fame way; fome make it by rubbing the nape of the neck against the tho

rax,

rax, others by the clapping of their wings against each other, or against the back, as the Scarabaeus Fullo; nature has furnished the wings with very ftrong nerves for this purpose. Laftly, fome produce a found merely by rubbing their head, and the extremities of their wings with their long legs.

This found is often very ftrong, especially when many infects fly together. That however is not always neceffary; there are fome infects whofe voice is fo fonorous and piercing, as not only to awaken people a-fleep, but to make itself be heard at a distance, even though they be under ground, as the Gryllotalpa, or at a pretty confiderable depth in water, as a fpecies of Dytifcus.

This faculty is bestowed on infects for different purposes; many males ufe it as an invitation to the females, and therefore, it is often a mark, by which the males may be diftinguifhed, as I think I have already obferved. This rule, however, is not without exception, for the females of the Cimex perfonatus, and Scarabæus Fullo, likewife utter a found. The noife which fome infects make, likewife ferves to denote anger, forrow, or pleafure. Some ufe it to infpire their enemies with terror, and to frighten them away. Lally, it is often a mark, by which other animals discover their enemy, who, when they hear his voice, avcid him and escape.

Many infects difcharge a fenfible fmell. This is fometimes fo offenfive, that, in approaching them, one is fometimes obliged to ftop ones nofe, but there are alfo fome whofe fmell is very agreeable. The mufk beetle takes its name from this circumftance. In fome, the fmell is natural to the infect, in others it is adventitious, and arifes from the fubftances they feed on. Some do not perpetually give out this

fmell;

fmell; to make them yield it, they must be squeezed, and the odorous particles, as it were, forced out of them. Some lofe, at the inftant of death, the smell they had while alive.

This quality is of special service to them at the time of pairing; by it they can discover one another at a distance, and can more easily meet. Like deer and cats, they discharge much more of the odorous effluvia, at this time, than at any other. Some use it to disgust their purfuers, in the fame manner as the Indian animal does, called Yzquiepatl, (Viverra vulpecula.)

It has been obferved, that infects ftain the leaves of trees, walls, and water. In the month of May, andother fummer months, we often perceive a fcum or green fibrous pellicle on ftagnant waters. This is a fort of web, made by small maggots like eels, which the wind has driven from the fides of the pond. These small animals are exceedingly laborious, for this small pellicle is no fooner removed, than they immediately weave another. There is a fmall water infect, (Monoculus Pulex,) which multiplies during fummer, and its progeny are often fo numerous, that they make the furface of the water quite red. This obfervation is of ufe; for the vulgar imagine, that the water is then turned into blood, and that it is an omen of fome approaching calamity. There are other infects that give occafion to fimilar fuperftitions. They difcharge drops of a red juice, which affume different figures, and fometimes that of a crofs. This is enough to alarm the ignorant, and to make them believe, that it has rained blood, whence they form all forts of difaftrous prefages. But perfons more attentive, and lefs prejudiced, have made experiments, and demonstrated that the appearance proceeds from certain fpecies of butterflies.

Peirefc, if I am not miflaken, was the first who took the trouble of examining into this phenomenon. In the month of July 1608, a report was fpread, that a fhower of blood had fallen: this ftruck him, and determined him to neglect nothing, in order to clear up a circumftance fo extraordinary. He made the people fhow him thofe large drops of blood, and found them on the wall of the cemetery of the great church, and on thofe of the houfes of the common people and peafantry of the whole diftrict. for a mile round. He confidered them attentively, heard all that was faid on the fubject, and, after mature deliberation he concluded that the fhower of blood was an illufion. He had not, however, difcovered the true caufe of it, but an accident foon difcovered it to him. He had enclofed, in a box, a large and beautiful chryfalis, and hearing one day a noife in it, he opened the box, and there immediately flew out, a butterfly, (Papilio C. album) leaving at the bottom of the box, a pretty large red drop. There had appeared at the beginning of the month of July, a great number of thefe butterflies; whence Peirefc concluded, that the red fpots, which appeared on the walls, were nothing but the excrements of thofe infects. He was confirmed in his conjecture, upon examining the holes in which that fpecies generally neftles. He obferved befides, that on the walls of the houfes, in the middle of the town, where thefe butterflies never come, there were none of those spots, nor on any but such as were next the country, where it is probable they might have lodged. Laftly, he remarked, that ro fpots were to be seen on the tops of the houfes, but only from the middle ftery downwards, the height to which thefe butterflies generally rife.

Other curious enquirers have made the fame ob. fervation fiace his time. Among thefe is Dr Beck

man,

man, profeffor at Frankfort on the Oder. In the month of July, 1665, being at Ochfenfurt, he remarked, that many butterflies difcharged fimilar red drops when they were merely touched with the hand. Mr Linke of Leipfig informs me he has obferved the fame thing.

Infects make war on one another, and fome, even on individuals of their own fpecies. The large reddifh yellow spiders eat one another, w en put together under a glais. Grafshoppers are mortal enemies. The male lives apart from the female, except at pairing time: if the female meets the male by chance, the maims him, breaks his legs, or kills him outright. There is open and declared war among fome fpecies; the ichneumons, for inftance, and fpiders maffacre each other reciprocally, with mercileís fury. If grafshoppers are put in the fame place with the house cricket, the former eagerly purfue the latter and kill

them.

Befides natural antipathy, other reafons may be fuggefted for this barbarity. Infects, for whom the Creator has defined others as their food, lay fnares for them, in order to fatisfy their appetite. They therefore behave like a hunter, who endeavours to entrap the game he is in queft of; and, when they have feized their prey, they kill and devour it. Wafps, for inftance, make war upon bees, by the fame inflinct which induces the wolf to attack the lamb, the cat the moule, or the ftork the frog. The want of other food i. duces infects to make war on one another, and puts them under the dimal nceffity of devouring their own fpecies. I have often made the experiment with certain caterpillars; they never attacked others, till they were entirely depri ved of every four of food. fort of food. The horrors of famine drove them to do what men have fometimes done in