THE DRAGON FROM THE POND 201 



without noticing them. But such a likeness is, of course, 

 mere accident. 



In general the whole form of the creature is salient, and 

 it abides in the memory with the force that it strikes the eye. 

 A caricaturist would probably fasten first on the eyes, but 

 after that on the legs. They are set on in an odd group in 

 front of the wings, and are obviously quite useless for the 

 purpose of most legs. They are impossible legs for walking. 

 They are admirable for hanging the insect up on a branch ; 

 and it seems to the writer, though naturalists dispute it, that 

 they form a sort of net for catching the flies on which the 

 animal feeds. At any rate they are admirably fitted for the 

 purpose and * great is juxtaposition.' They are placed in 

 a group, all within reach of the mouth. Though the dragon- 

 fly loves now and again to top high trees and take long 

 flights into comparatively arid places, it is a lover of the 

 water, as it was in its crawling stage. It loves the water, as 

 a swallow does, because flies are numerous. On streams 

 where the dragon-flies are numerous you may see floating on 

 the water wings and limbs of the victims clipped off in mid- 

 air and falling to tempt the smaller fish. They seem, too, 

 to have some local affections, like the robin. You may find 

 them for several weeks close to one spot. There they hawk 

 on their wonderful four wings, each wing separate from the 

 other, perhaps thus making possible those astounding dashes 

 and turns that defeat even the bat or the turtle-dove. There, 

 too, the female, when the times comes, half sinks in the 

 water to lay her eggs and ensure succession in the same 

 place. 



The dragon-fly is a dragon, but it has also the spirit of 

 the air. The sunshine, which makes its splendour in our 

 eyes, is life to this fly. When days are dark the meshed 

 wings are closed, and the dragon sulks in its tent, suspending 



