MRS. COATES'S BATH. 69 



winter a gleam of sunshine will bring out the whirlwig 

 beetles in any spot wherever the ice is not formed, and 

 they will dart about as merrily as if the July sim were 

 pouring its hot beams on them. I need not say that 

 there are plenty of these beetles, because there is 

 scarcely a piece of water larger than a puddle in which 

 they may not be found. A depression in the groimd 

 which has been dry for months, and suddenly filled 

 with water by a rain-storm, will have whirlwigs in it 

 before many hours have passed. The fact is that 

 these beetles, like those which I have just described, 

 have large and powerful wings, and can use them with 

 great ease. They can take a flight from the surface of 

 the water — a fact which I believe has not hitherto 

 been noticed, or at all events not published. I found 

 it out only a few weeks ago. 



While stooping over the water, and admiring the 

 rapid movements of the whirlwig beetles, one of them 

 suddenly darted up, struck me on the nose, and fell back 

 again into the water. If the beetle were half as much 

 astonished as I was, it must have been very much sur- 

 prised indeed. Wishing to see how this feat was 

 achieved, I took a number of the beetles, and put them 

 into an aquarium, thinking — and, the result proved, 

 rightly — that they would soon be tired of their limited 

 space and would take to wing. After whirling about 

 for a little time, some of them crawled up the glass sides 

 of the £iquarium, while others darted into the air and 

 took to flight. They did it by striking the water 



