INSECTS 1427 



merely with the same rapidity, but even greater, as 

 it not infrequently flew to and fro about the carriage, 

 or described zigzag lines in its flight. The aerial 

 movements of the hive-bee are more distinct and 

 leisurely." 



You have doubtless often admired the noble 

 dragon-fly, with its four ample and widespread 

 wings of gauze, hawking in a green lane, or over a 

 pool in the noon of summer. It sails, or rather shoots 

 with arrowy fleetness hither and thither, now for- 

 ward, now backward, now to the right, now to the 

 left, without turning its body, but simply by the 

 action of its powerful and elegant wings. Leeuwen- 

 hoek once saw an insect of this tribe chased by a swal- 

 low in a menagerie a hundred feet long. The dragon- 

 fly shot along with such astonishing power of wing, 

 to the right, to the left, and in all directions, that 

 this bird of rapid flight and ready evolution was 

 unable to overtake and capture it, the insect eluding 

 every attempt, and being in general fully six 1 feet in 

 advance of the bird. A dragon-fly has been known 

 to fly on board a ship at sea, the nearest land being 

 the coast of Africa, five hundred miles distant, a 

 fact highly illustrative of its power of wing. 



It is a point of interest to know the structure of 

 the organs by which such results are accomplished. 

 Let us begin with the common fly. Well, we 

 will borrow one of his wings for the lesson, and, 

 putting it into the stage-forceps, we shall be able to 

 turn it in any direction for observation beneath the 

 microscope. 



At first it seems a very thin, transparent mem- 



