ON A DRAGON FLY. 231 



one is bound to afl&rm at least in the Dragon-flies" favour that their 

 ways do no known harm to him or his. 



They are fond of a stick about a half-inch square in the aquarium 

 to cling to, round which they will play bo-peep with you as you go 

 near, slipping from side to side out of sight as you show yourself, but 

 as if partly tamed with the regular feeding. They also prefer porous 

 tile to smooth stones to hide under, as they can cling more easily to 

 it. They refuse their food a day or two before each moult of skin, and 

 the time of fasting is increased to about a week or ten days, just before 

 they make the final change to the imago. During this period they 

 climb up the stick or any stem to the surface, so as to expose their 

 mouth and eyes slightly, and it is, I think, during this stage that the 

 altered mode to breathing the common air is undergone. After this 

 amphibious interval, the first hot day is chosen by them for the change 

 to the higher life, the sight of wliich ought to be almost enough to 

 awaken faith m an agnostic. 



I do not know how many times altogether they moult from the egg 

 to the imago, but I have seen that they shed the skin four times during 

 the last six mouths before the imago comes out. Throughout the 

 whole time and process of the larval state it is ver\' necessary to keep 

 the water well aerated by balanced vegetation or a syringe. 



We will, if you please, resume our loafing at the old centre, namely, 

 Edwards' Pools at Bilston, and need not go far to see all we want, as 

 they can always be found here in summer in the winged state. 



Choose the early hours of a fine day in July or August for a stroll 

 round the borders of the pools. Near the edges or corners where the 

 reeds, rushes, and flags are growing, you maj' soon find out by the 

 numbers flying to and fro where these dragon-flies are colonised. 



It adds much to your chances of observing if j'ou first mark out 

 where they are located, for they are shy, and as symbolised by the 

 large development of eye-facultv they are correspondingly swift in 

 flight ; but the kind chiefly found here — the Afjrion — is, luckily for 

 learners, the least active. The eye of this species seems a millenocular 

 stereoscope, and is a wonder under the magnifier, looking like the round 

 knob of the stopper of a glass decanter cut into ten thousand facets, 

 each one of which is said to receive a picture of the objects around. 

 What can the optic lobe of its microscopic brain be like ? This is a 

 fine point. The best mode I know of preserving specimens of this is 

 never to catch any, but to leave them to enjoy their existence. Some 

 procure them to cure them, but it is a ragged piece of business at 

 the best, and certainly is no longer necessary for anyone who will 

 become a member of the Birmingham Natural History Society, with 

 access to the beautiful works on their form and colour to be found in 

 its library. 



Don't make any attempt to chase or run them down, but seating 

 yourself very gently, where you can look about and have them for a 

 yard or two within reach, you leave them to their sports. Thoy will 



