Pond Life 
whole collection of wriggling and flapping 
creatures. Many of these are larvae, or 
caterpillars, of beetles and of dragon- 
flies, which, when they have completed 
their under-water existence, turn into 
beetles and dragon-flies, and fly about 
in the air. During their larval state 
under the water they are all of them 
very voracious, devouring one another 
as well as anything else smaller and 
weaker than themselves. And as they 
are all very active, and furnished with 
formidable jaws, they must be as much 
to be feared and dreaded by the smaller 
vegetable-feeders as is a hungry tiger 
by the weaker animals of the jungle. 
Both are equally beasts of prey, which 
are always seeking to satisfy their hunger 
by devouring something weaker than 
themselves. 
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