British Dragoufiics. 



occasion nymphs may become prey for fishes in their 

 turn. Certainly Dragonflies themselves cannot be put to 

 any direct use, except to give pleasure to all who see 

 them w^ith an unprejucHcecl eye, whether at large or in 

 the collector's cabinet, although we are told that in 

 Lombock certain large species are caught by means of 

 limed twigs, and used as food.^ 



What natural enemies the Dragonflies have in this 

 country will usually be found amongst the birds, and 

 their number is no doubt small ;t nor, except when they 

 are newly on the wing and their bodies are soft, do they 

 seem to offer many temptations even to the most hungry 

 of foes ; whilst the larger species might easily terrify 

 any but the boldest. Gilbert White, the naturalist of 

 Selborne, says,;]: however, that he more than once saw 

 cuckoos catching them, sometimes on the wing, sometimes 

 when the Dragonflies were settled on the weeds. In one 

 instance he notes that the insects had but just emerged 

 from the n)'mph-case. A German writer, Bechstein, 

 confirms this statement. § Mr. T. H. Briggs relates 

 that he once saw a fight between a large Dragonfly and 

 a sparrow in a London street, but that the insect came 

 off victorious. It also seems to be the case that the 

 smaller kinds of Dragonflies are at times devoured by 

 hobbies, kestrels, and swallows. 1| That they some- 



* W. R. Wallace, "Malay Archipelago,"' p. 154, 1877. 



t By some, however, it is thought that birds cause considerable havoc 

 amongst Dragonflies. McLachlan (E. M. M., vol. ix., p. 48) mentions 

 that a bird, AJej-ope persictis, lines its nest with the remains of Dragon- 

 flies, on which insects it apparently feeds. 



J " Natural History of Selborne," Letters vii. and xxx. to Hon. Daines 

 Barrington. 



§ " Gemeinnutzige Naturgeschichte Deutsclilands " (1805). 



II E. M. M., 1871, p. 190; id. 1872, p. 227. 



