ON A DRAGON FLY. 233 



I assume, as before, that your aquarium is well prepared ; but the 

 vegetation should be such that there may be several stems or floating 

 leaves ou the surface. The more light and sun they get the better ; 

 so if you can work, as I was able to do, at a tank in a conservatory 

 (Hawkesford's) it is a great help. Before removing the glass shade 

 and setting the cork afloat with your capture upon it, you need 

 some kind of cover inverted over the aquarium. If you have the Agrion 

 this may be a frame cover of leno lace, but if you have caught the 

 larger kind they will gnaw through this, so it is best to invert another 

 glass acjuarium over them, turning in with them a good supply of flies, 

 gnats, or spiders, which they will seize as they come across them, if 

 they have not been hurt in transshipment. The full feeding is very 

 necessary both in the larval and imago state. 



As it is well, however, to keep as near to natural conditions as 

 possible, your best plan, I think, is this : Having left them on the pond 

 side for an hour or two, you raise the glass shade and set the captives 

 free. If deftly dene it is likely the gentleman will take part in assisting 

 his lady in the duty of egg depositing, which begins about mid-day and 

 goes ou tbroughdiit the afternoon. Suspending her by his claspers 

 round her neck, ho sails away and brings her poised a few inches over 

 the water, now and again lowering her with a sweeping stroke or dash 

 down to the surface, she at the same moment releasing an egg at each 

 dip. You may see this done to the number of twenty times or more 

 by any one pair. There is an easy dancing action in this, which leads 

 one to think that it is a great help to her in her efforts. 



Should, however, the lady be left to herself, she no less faithfully 

 fulfils her duty to the future offspi-ing she will never see ; but it is 

 manifestly a work of greater labour alone. She then alights on the 

 stems or leaves of plants near the surface, and you may see her bend 

 her long body into a curve until the ovipositor touches the plant, 

 and the eggs are laid there, one at a time, and may be found upon it. 

 As the leaf decays it carries them to the bottom. 



Most of the names of this genus imply a malignant power which 

 is not inapt, and as I had my quirk last time at nomenclature 

 I should not wish any scientist to arch his eyebrow again at me. I 

 hope I regard all true science as the light of life and its laws. 



It is more than half a score years since my spare time and walks 

 were given to observing in this district, but as I pass through it by 

 train or tram I can see from the windows many of the old haunts of 

 hydra and entozoa, insect and fish, that I am sure would well repay 

 the visit of naturalists any fine day in summer. 



Mr. M'Lennan, in his work on primitive marriage by theft or force, 

 traces the ceremonies and modes of seizure among the early traditions 

 of nearly every race. I fancy, however, he cannot well. begin or stop 

 at primitive man or even vertebrates, but may caiTy the traces far 

 beyond all record, and spell out an exemplification of early wife capture 

 in the habits of the Dragon-fly. 



