HALF WINGS. 73 



For this once to come and join us ? 

 I shall tell thee of the Half Wings, 

 Class Hemiptera, or Half Wings. 

 I will show thee many of them 

 On the trees and on the flowers, 

 And, -with ^Yaternet longhandled, 

 We will get the rest from water ; 

 Here and there in that great forest, 

 Stretching northward, stretching southward, 

 Stretching eastward, stretching westward, 

 There are little pools of water 

 Filled with insect life aquatic. 



Place first, all the Bugflies proper. 

 With their long and large antennas 

 Stretched out visibly before them ; 

 Fore wings always of two textures ; 

 Where they fit on to the body 

 They are thick, and tough hke leather, 

 But the tips are quite transparent. 

 Thin and flexible and filmy. 

 One laid on the other crosswise : 

 All their legs are very simple. 

 Formed for running, not for leaping ; 

 And their feet are all threejointed. 

 On the sap of plants they fatten. 

 Sucking it with pointed rostrum. 

 Oh, they smell so very nasty ! 

 Like the bug we find in houses ; 



