230 UN A DKACiON KLY. 



the enemy is peeled off to his amaze, if not to his damage. When a 

 worm disappears in this waj' the larvae will sometimes stay watching 

 the opeuiniL^ for a long time with their heads turned down, and a little 

 on one side, like a dog at a rat hole. 



The snatch of their jaw-forceps is so quick it takes good eyesight 

 to see it ; but a worm by its quickened movements when dropped into 

 the water in front of them often causes them to miss once or twice, and 

 the action repeated gives a good opportunity for catching sight of it. 

 The worm can be lowered and dangled in front of them, held by just 

 one turn of a tine silk thread, out of which they will drag it. They 

 will gorge a worm their own length in two or three minutes, during 

 which time the movement up and down of the abdomen in breathing 

 is very marked, as if heaving to suck the food in. The gorging is helped 

 by the nippers, which take a fresh hold higher up before each piece 

 is bitten off by the jaws and passed into the gullet. 



Although they will tackle a snail at times when hungry, with, 

 however, the risk of being partly drawn into the mouth of the shell 

 and held there for a time, they will, very strangely, let a snail slowly 

 crawl along and over their body without starting away, as they mostly 

 do when touched bj' other moving things in the water. I have thought 

 that perhaps the sliding movement of the snail over them may groom 

 or shampoo them, as it were, and clean off parasites and other attached 

 things. 



In ordinary course, when no prey is in sight, their crawling 

 motion is very slow, as if their watery home made them stiff and 

 rheumatic ; but this is only their artfulness, for they no sooner sight 

 any choice food in motion at a short distance than their slow action 

 is changed to one of great alertness. They raise their head and fore- 

 part of their body by planting their first pair of legs like a carriage 

 horse, and the action of the neck becomes grand, subtle, and free, as 

 that of a snake or lizard, for a moment or two. They then advance 

 like a cat after a bird, until within half an inch of their prey, when out 

 shoot the jaw-calipers, and the object is seized. They will, however, if 

 surprised with enticing prey, such as a young minnow, swim after it in 

 rapid jerks, and make a dash at it as it moves ; but they appear to think 

 twice in view of the spines of the Stickleback, and conclude him to be 

 sour. 



They are very careful, after a meal, to clean their face, removing all 

 particles of skin or harder stuff that has not been sucked in, and 

 which has got attached to their teeth and lips. This they do with 

 their jaw-forceps, and these they then sweep clean with their fore-legs 

 after the manner of a fly or a young rabbit cleaning his whiskers. 



By means of its gluttony the larva stores up an energy for use in wing 

 power in its aerial state more marvellous that Faure's cell of condensed 

 electrical force, but only to be more dragouian. I notice the clergy 

 explain this voracity by kindly calling it the balance of nature. 

 Angels, however, are not perhaps so pink as they are painted, and if 

 evil be that which is out of harmony with the laws of man's nature, 



