THE WATER CABINET. 135 
The hydrous piceus is here represented of the natural 
size ; the ground colour is black, with a shade of bronze, 
and the margins of the elytra are tinged with green and 
purple. Hach wing case is marked with dotted lines, the 
breast is dingy yellow, and the antenne and organs of the 
mouth dull red. The legs are black, and the hairs which 
fringe the tarsi reddish brown. 
CoLYMBETES, of several species, may be obtained in 
plenty from clear brooks in every part of the country. 
COLYMBETES. 
These are elegantly-formed and lively beetles ; their elytra, 
legs, thorax, head, and breast of the same jet-black hue, 
and highly burnished, though, when immersed, the breast 
and abdomen glisten with an intensely metallic silvery 
lustre, owing to the film of atmospheric air which the 
beetle obtains from the surface, and which adheres to the 
hairy covering of the abdomen. This silvery species is 
here represented in its natural size. They are compara- 
tively harmless, though I have just witnessed the demise 
