FOURTH DEVELOPMENT. 53 



singular process by which this additional and final change is 

 effected has been thus described.* 



" After its release from the Puparium, and making use of 

 its wings for flight often to a considerable distance, the little 

 Ephemera fixes itself by its claws in a vertical position to 

 some convenient object, and withdraws every part of the body, 

 even legs and wings, from a thin pellicle which has enclosed 

 them like a glove the fingers, and so exactly do the eawvite, 

 which remain attached to the spot where the Ephemera has 

 disrobed itself, retain their former figure, that I have more 

 than once at first sight mistaken them for the perfect insect." 



To become eye-witnesses of this interesting operation we 

 have only, on a warm still morn or evening of May or early 

 June, to take our station beside a brook which they are known 

 to haunt, and we shall see them rise from the water, and 

 settling on some adjacent water plant, or perhaps on our own 

 sacred persons, proceed to cast off and leave suspended the 

 outer garment which has hitherto concealed their last and most 

 perfect suit. This, though much resembling it, greatly exceeds 

 the former in polish of texture and clearness of colouring. In 

 Ephemera, caught previous to this final casting off, we have had 

 opportunities of observing it effected in our own window. 



When thus adorned in their best and what may properly be 

 called their bridal vestments, love and pleasure (unimpeded 

 even by the exigences of hunger, air being then their only 



* By Kirby and Spence. 



