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tlirougli the air about one's ears and not a sound be heard to indicate 

 their presence. In addition to their fragility and innocent a[)peaiance 

 some of them are arrayed in the most exquisite and gorgeous colours, 

 and though the wings are plain and transparent, the absence of beauty 

 in this respect, as compared with some others of their kind, is more than 

 made up by the distinct, vai-ied and brilliant colours of the rest of their 

 bodies. They show their affections for each other in the most delicate 

 and impassionate manner ; the male, with the little foi"ceps at the 

 exti-emity of his abdomen, clasps the female gently about the neck and 

 in this way they start off on their hymeneal wanderings, in the same slow 

 and careless manner which characterizes their movements when flying 

 alone. After death these insects lose their brilliancy and some of the 

 colours disapear altogether, so that dried specimens in the cabinet show 

 to very poor advantage compai'ed with their appearance when alive and 

 in a natural state. On this account it would be well for the collector, 

 who is able to do so, to make a careful drawing of the fly at the time of 

 capture and paint in the different shades in order to study it afterwards. 



Agrion Ilageni, Walsh. — This is a somewhut larger species, arid 

 does not confine its peregrinations to so small an area as some other's of 

 the genus do. Keeping well on wing, it approaches more closely, in 

 point of appetite and disposition, to the larger insects of the other tribes. 

 The upper surface of the thorax is powdery, but the rest of the body 

 and wings present little diversity from the others. 



Agrion violaceum, Hag., is of a violet colour, nearly as lai'ge as 

 A. Hageni, and vei-y energetic, but not so strong, and is more gentle in 

 its manners. 



Tribe II. — JEschnina. — Hagen's description of this tribe, as differ- 

 ing from the others, is as follows: — -"Wings unequal; triangles of all 

 " the wings of the same form ; genital organs of the male having the 

 " hamule connate ; the penis and vesicle conjoined ; genital organs of 

 " the female vaginated or exposed." 



Sub-family III. — Gomphinie. — E;es distant; posterior wings 

 broader than the anterior ones. 



Gompkiis exilis, Selys. — A specimen of this species was taken in 

 Dow's swamp, two or three miles to the southward of the city ; and 

 notwithstanding that I have seen many in and about that locality, I 



