108 LONG-LEGGED GNATS. 



Besides the above, there is a mixed multitude of small 

 Tipultf, or long-legged flies, much resembling, and often con- 

 founded with, the gnat ; though the common gnat is sufficiently 

 distinguished by the singular transformations of its aquatic 

 larva, described already in ' A Life of Buoyancy/ In their 

 last and perfect stage, many, however, of these Tipulidan flies, 

 or gnats, are full as buoyant as those to which the latter appel- 

 lation more properly belongs : like them, they are often alert 

 and joyous, while other insects are dead or dormant ; like 

 I hem, fly mi wetted in the shower, and often, like them, dancing 

 in the winter shade, hold, in defiance of the gloomiest season, 

 their " mid-da^ sports and revelry." 



But it is not with such diminutives that we should conclude 

 handsomely our notice of the line of Longlegs. Let us 

 return instead to the stilted " fathers" or mothers of the 

 tribe, with a random guess at the derivation of one of their 

 incongruous appellations. Why they should be called "Tailors" 

 we cannot tell, unless, as animals made up of legs, they may 

 be considered but as fractions ninth parts, perhaps, of an 

 insect. Why creatures never know ? n to spin a thread should 

 sometimes also be named " Jenny Spinners," was, to us, no 

 less a mystery, till, on a summer's day, its possible solution 

 flashed upon us. We were sitting in a shady lane, when, on 

 the turf that bordered it, what should appear but a single 

 Mother Longlegs neither flying nor walking, but whirling 

 and spinning round in a strange eccentric manner ; her wings 



