THE WATER CABINET. 125 
mouth, and afterwards draw it back, as a water fowl will 
draw its feathers through its bill to prepare them for 
resisting water.” I have now (July, 1856) some thousands 
of the larva of this and other species of gnats, and they are 
the most lively creatures in my collection. The flies come 
off in large numbers, and escape through the open win- 
dow; or, if the window be closed, they swarm on the 
glass, and keep up a musical humming, closely resembling 
that of a swarm of bees at a distance. 
A more elegant example of this kind of breathing 
apparatus is seen in the grub of the two-winged fly, 
LARVA OF STRATIOMYS. 
Stratiomys Chameleon. The funnel ‘tail spreads into a 
beautiful star of thirty distinct rays, and with this struc- 
