CHAPTER IX. 
DRAGON-FLY STORMS. 
One of the most curious things I have encountered 
in my observations on animal life relates to a habit 
of the larger species of dragon-flies inhabiting the 
Pampas and Patagonia. Dragon-flies are abun- 
dant throughout the country wherever there is 
water. ‘There are several species, all more or less 
brilhantly coloured. The kinds that excited my won- 
der, from their habits, are twice as large as the com- 
mon widely distributed insects, being three inches 
to four inches in length, and as arule they are sober- 
coloured, although there is one species—the largest 
among them—entirely of a brilliant scarlet. This 
kind is, however, exceedingly rare. All the different 
kinds (of the large dragon-flies) when travelling 
associate together, and occasionally, in a flight 
composed of countless thousands, one of these 
brilliant-hued individuals will catch the eye, appear- 
ing as conspicuous among the others as a poppy or 
scarlet geranium growing alone in an otherwise 
flowerless field. The most common species—and 
in some cases the entire flight seems to be composed 
of this kind only—is the Auschna bonariensis Raml, 
the prevailing colour of which is pale blue. But 
the really wonderful thing about them all alike is, 
