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in both sexes are placed in the tail, he immediately flies to her, and fixing himself by his 

 feet to the hinder part of her abdomen, bends his body round her tail, and performs the 

 business of generation, both flying about all the time this act is performing ; the whole 

 transaction not exceeding the space of half a minute. Within a few hours after, the female, 

 thus impregnated, begins to lay her eggs in the following manner. She singles out a leaf, 

 grass, or some such matter, that is floating just below the surface of the water, in some 

 pond, and, hovering in the air about a foot above this spot, on a sudden she descends, and 

 dips the extremity of her tail in the water, at which instant she discharges an egg, that 

 at the moment of its emission is inveloped in a glutinous liquid, sufficiently tenacious to 

 enable it to adhere firmly on the floating substance above-mentioned without sinking. In 

 this manner she continues depositing them till she has discharged the proper quantity, 

 hovering in the air all the time, and emitting them as fast as the pendulum of a clock per- 

 forms its vibrations ; placing them close to one another in no regular or exact order. 

 Whether she discharges at one time all her quantity of eggs, or only those that were fecun- 

 dated and ready for emission, waiting to have the remaining eggs within her again 

 fecundated by the male, or whether the first act of copulation sufficiently impregnates 

 the whole quantity which she discharges at different times, as nature ripens them, is a cir- 

 cumstance I cannot determine. However this may be, it is certain she does not discharge 

 them all at once ; but comes again to the same place, when those within her are ready for 

 emission, and there lays them in the same manner as at first. 



" In this manner all the flat-bodied Libellas copulate and lay their eggs ; the others, 

 which are formed with slender bodies, behave very differently in every circumstance ; for in 

 each of those species, when the male has singled out its mate, he flies to her, and by means 

 of two little bony substances placed at the end of his tail, issuing on each side, and com- 

 posing a kind of forceps, he fixes himself to the forepart of her neck, close behind the 

 head, the female discovering no sign of fear while he is performing this action ; having fixed 

 himself in this position, he remains there several days, sometimes appearing with his body 

 quite erect, at other times bending himself, and settling with his legs on the same substance 

 she may happen to alight on, without ever quitting his hold ; but flies through the air, 

 thus united, wherever the fancy or inclination of the female disposes her to go. This 

 behaviour we must consider as a prelude to copulation, for that is not performed till a 

 considerable time after they are thus united ; and therefore I look on it as a wooing, or 

 act of courtship in the male. But having remained a sufficient time in this manner, that 

 is, till the female is disposed to receive him, she bends her tail round to that part where I 

 described the organ of generation to be placed in the male, and, being still held fast by the 

 neck, in that attitude they perform the mandate of nature. This action being over, that 

 in the smaller kinds takes up a considerable space of time (for I have known them in this 

 posture above eighteen hours) the female soon after begins to lay her eggs. She flies to 

 some rush, reed, or other plant growing in the water, and settling close to its edge dips 



