74 OUT OF DOORS. 



wards, their wing-cases half opened, and their wings 

 partly unfurled. I never saw them assume this attitude 

 except when the sun was shining directly on them, but 

 I have in that case seen thirty or forty at a time sunning 

 themselves in this curious attitude, which has all the 

 effect of a disguise, and makes them look quite different 

 insects. 



I am sorry to say that water-boatmen are very pre- 

 datory characters, and that they have a great fancy for 

 preying upon the water-gnats, as they are called, those 

 slight, dark-coloured, long-legged insects that run 

 about on the surface of the water as if they were on 

 land. They seize on the unfortunate insect, clasp it 

 tightly to them with their fore-legs, drive their beaks 

 deeply into its body, and suck out all its juices, after- 

 wards rejecting the body, which to the eye seems to 

 have undergone no change at all, and only to have been 

 killed by the wound. The water-boatman takes from 

 five minutes to a quarter of an hour to suck a single 

 water-gnat, and carries it about almost pertinaciously, 

 not even loosening its hold if alarmed and forced to 

 dive. 



Few facts have struck me more forcibly than the 

 peculiar life which is led by this and other aquatic 

 creatures. As a rule they are essentially predacious. 

 Taking merely those which have been mentioned, we 

 have the newt, which eats all kinds of water inhabitants, 

 provided they are not too large, and is in its turn often 

 subject to a fierce attack by the Great Dyticus, and has 



