NATURAL HISTORY OF MAY FLIES. 103 



or is cut short in an hour by the swinging 

 swift or darting swallow or hungry trout, it is 

 soon over ; their hours in the air are few, 

 their life below is comparatively long. 



I think myself fortunate, being absent from 

 town and from any library, in having access 

 to this superb work, " Histoire Naturelle des 

 Insectes Nduropteres." Par F. J. Pictet. 

 Geneve, 1843. The work is illustrated with 

 the most exquisite engravings of insects I have 

 ever seen. I also happen to have before me 

 a volume of Buffon, " Histoire Naturelle des 

 Insectes, NeVropteres." Par M. P. Rambur. 

 Having no English work to refer to except 

 the little pamphlet by Mr. McLachlan, " In- 

 structions for the Collection and Preservation 

 of Neuropterous Insects," I make no apo- 

 logy for translating a few passages bearing 

 on the subject of the May Fly (Ephemera 

 vulgata) from these works. 



Pictet's account of the birth, life, and 

 death of a May Fly is very interesting. He 

 says : " The female flutters just above the 

 water, and there lets fall one or two little 

 groups of eggs which absorb the water and 

 sink to the bottom. The eggs are completely 

 abandoned to chance, and one does not see, 

 among the Ephe'merines, the instinct so re- 

 markable with some Phryganidae, which, 



