Introduction. 



ai-giiment in fa\-our of exploring;' this neglected little 

 corner of the Animal Kingdom. 



Some of the difficulties to be encountered by the 

 naturalist who makes Dragonflies his study, are the 

 extremely obscure manner in which their early stages 

 are passed (the n}'mphs, as the immature form is called, 

 being aquatic), the inconveniences that attend the search 

 for them in those stages, and the breeding and identifi- 

 cation of them after they have been found. In making 

 a collection of the perfect insects a further difficulty 

 arises — in connection with their colour-preservation — and, 

 it must be confessed that, however great the care em- 

 ployed, some dissatisfaction is bound to be felt, when, 

 with the life, departs the greater portion of the splendour 

 which places the majority of these insects among the 

 most beautiful of living objects to be found in Nature. 



Hunting for the perfect insect has much to recommend 

 it to every true lover of the countr^^ for, since all 

 Dragonflies (except one or two large ones, which some- 

 times hawk about in the twilight) move only as a rule 

 in fine sunny weather, their capture will always be 

 associated with those bright summer scenes which seem 

 to take so strong a hold upon the memory. The 

 recollection is of beds of tall reeds and stalwart bul- 

 rushes fringing the still, sleeping waters of some boggy 

 lake or pool on a hot summer's day, when the trees 

 that grow around are repeated upside down in the 

 glassy surface of the water, and the presence of the 

 azure-tinted Dragonfly, Aua.x iiiipcratoi\ may be traced 

 by his reflection as he hovers o'er the pool, or swings 

 backwards and forwards along the edges of the reed- 

 beds, for a long time tantalising the patient collector 



B 2 



