174 THE DRAGON-FLIES. 



THE DRAGON-FLIES (Libellulce). 



In walking along the banks of a river, you must frequently 

 have seen hovering around you a cloud of insects, whom you 

 would readily take to be butterflies, were not you arrested in 

 your conjecture by the largeness of their head, the length of 

 their body, the form of their vivid, diaphanous, gauze-like 

 wings, and, generally, which will most astonish you, by their 

 carnivorous instincts. You have about you and before, then, 

 not butterflies, but Dragon-flies the Libelhdce of naturalists. 

 They are the demoiselles, or " ladies," of the French ; so called, 

 perhaps, in allusion to their airy and graceful flight. 



Among these Libellulse, one is called Eleanora. If she does 

 not shine so brightly as the others if her colours are less 

 brilliant she has, at least, the advantage of being so common 

 that you can easily obtain a specimen. 



But, first, let us pause to think of the strange dissimilarity 

 in the names bestowed on the Libellula by the English and 

 French respectively. They are the Dragon-flies of the former, 

 fierce, rapacious, formidable; the Ladies of the latter, 

 elegant, light, and radiant. Here we have a glimpse of 

 national character. With the Frenchman, "appearance" 

 counts for so much; with the Englishman, everything de- 

 pends upon the " reality." Yet our English poets can appre- 

 ciate their gay exterior. Moore speaks of them as 



" Those bright things which have their dwelling 

 Where the little streams are welling ! " 



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