CHAPTER VI 



DRAGON-FLIES AND DAM- 

 SEL-FLIES (Order Odonata) 



HEN it is high noon on the mill-pond, — 

 when leaves droop, and sun glares upon the 

 water, and the air is hot and still, when 

 other creatures seek the shade, and even 

 the swallows that skim the air morning 

 and evening are resting, — then those other 

 swallows of the insect world, the dragon- 

 flies, are all abroad. . . . One may stand 

 by the side of a small pond, and follow 

 for hours with his eye the evolutions of one of the large dragon-flies skim- 



ming over the surface in zigzag lines or sweeping curves, stopping still 

 in midair, and starting again, seeming never to rest, nor even to tire. Poised 



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