In reality these queerly-moving long legs serve the insect effectively in making its way among the closely-set blades of grass about which it crawls. The legs easily come off, and the loss of one does not appear to be a serious matter. Probably the easy detachment of a leg enables the fly to escape if one of them gets caught and nipped in overlapping blades of grass--though such a throwing away of a limb seems a rather reckless proceeding, especially since the insect has no power of "regeneration" as it is called, that is, of growing a new leg to replace the lost one. There are several well-known instances of animals which have the power of breaking off a leg or the tail if seized by an enemy or otherwise gripped. The smaller lizards and the legless lizard, called the "slow-worm," have this power in regard to the tail, but they proceed to grow a new tail after they have escaped. Some marine worms have a similar faculty, and some star-fishes (hence called "brittle-stars") have a most annoying habit of throwing off their "arms" when caught. The central disk of these star-fish, with all its arms shed, can "regenerate" the lost parts. Crabs, too, of various kinds have the habit, when caught by the leg, of breaking it off, and they may often be found with a completely-formed little leg, which has been "regenerated" or grown afresh, and will in due time attain full size. The beautiful hairy skin of the tail of the little dormouse also will come off when the animal is caught by it, leaving the bony blood-stained skeleton of the tail exposed to dry and wither up. There is no re-growth in this case. I was horrified when I was a boy to see six dormice reduced to this condition in the bird and beast shop on the staircase of the old Pantheon bazaar. They had escaped from their cage whilst I was looking on, and the shopman endeavoured to catch them, with this distressing result. So we find that the loss of its legs by the "daddy" is a means of safety to it, and is a similar provision to that seen in some other animals. It seems improbable that the "old father long-legs" who "would not say his prayers" (according to an ancient nursery rhyme), is a myth referring to a daddy-long-legs of the insect kind, since the recommendation to "take him by his left leg and throw him downstairs" would have been futile; his left leg would have come off as soon as seized, and have greatly embarrassed the individual intending to throw him downstairs! Another kind of insect-like animal, which occurs commonly in cobwebby outhouses, and has a globular body and eight very long legs--easily broken off--is also commonly called a "daddy-long-legs." It has no wings, and is allied to the spiders, though it is not a true spider--having a minute pair of nippers near its mouth, instead of the pair of stabbing claws which spiders have. It is frequently called a "harvester," a name loosely applied to other small creatures. It is known to zoologists as Opilio.