54 THE EPHEMERIDJE. 



transmutations are not yet complete, for the newly 

 produced insect makes early use of its wings to 

 remove to the nearest bank or tree, where it 

 undergoes its final metamorphosis shedding the 

 whole of the delicate skin with which not only 

 its body, but its wings, legs, and whisks were 

 covered. The cast off skin remains behind, re- 

 taining for a short time the exact form of the 

 insect.* After this final change the fly is brighter 

 in colour, its wings are more shining and trans- 



* This wonderful operation may be witnessed by any one 

 who will take the trouble to catch a blue dun, or any other 

 ephemeral fly, and place it under a wine glass. Or even 

 that trouble may be saved by watching, for a few minutes, 

 the same kind of flies alighted on the sleeve of his coat 

 during his summer-evening's ramble by the river side. 

 These insects will have availed themselves of his presence 

 for the express purpose of undergoing the operation, and if 

 he be a lover of nature, the contemplation of such a sight 

 will prove an ample return for the convenience afforded by 

 the said sleeve, and for the slight interruption to his fishing 

 or his walk which that contemplation may have occasioned. 

 To the dwellers by the Axe we need not mention Cloakham 

 bridge as a favourite resort of ephemeral flies for the 

 purpose mentioned, nor as an excellent place for studying 

 the economy of many other aquatic insects J; to say nothing 

 about its claims to their attention for affording a pleasant 

 prospect of varied scenery, and for the study of other por- 

 tions of animate and inanimate nature from the beaux 

 and belles of Axminster, and the groves and lawn of Cloak- 

 ham, downwards. 



