A NATURALIST'S STORY. 175 



Poor Clare, the Northamptonshire poet, correctly studied 



" The great dragon-fly with gauzy wings, 

 In gilded coat of purple, green, and brown, 

 That on broad leaves of hazel basking clings." 



And Mary Howitt has seen them 



" Here and there they dart, 

 And flush like gleams of green and azure light." 



Beautiful as they are, they must be ranked among Nature's 

 fiercest and most insatiable destroyers. They are the terror 

 of the insect world. On this point we shall hereafter enlarge, 

 but before I forget it, I would fain relate an anecdote, in 

 illustration of their voracity, which I have read somewhere 

 or other. A naturalist recounts with what interest he has 

 often watched the proceedings of the dragon-fly. He has 

 seen it, in a locality where white butterflies were numerous, 

 dart down as a hawk upon a quarry, seize with its legs a firm 

 hold of a butterfly, and carry it to a branch of an adjoining 

 tree. In a moment one of the white wings would drop from 

 the boughs, and then another would come wavering down- 

 wards, and so on, until all four had fallen ; and the dragon- 

 fly, after a short pause, would again dart forth in pursuit of 

 a fresh victim. He 

 never launched himself 

 on his prey when on a 

 perfect horizontal line 

 with it; but took care 

 to be either somewhat 



higher, Or Somewhat FIG. 37 .-The cVmmon Dragon-fly. 



lower, so that he could seize it with his feet. 



