WATER-SCORPIONS. 23 



ian brook, since one is apt to give a nervous 

 jump now and then even after one has kept these 

 small scorpion-bugs in captivity for months and 

 has become somewhat accustomed to their alarm- 

 ing appearance and actions. 



The water-scorpions of this brook do not pos- 

 sess the thin breathing-tube with which the bod- 

 ies of some (Nepa) of this family terminate. I 

 found in this water, however, one tube -bearing 

 member of the Nepi- 

 dce, a Ranatra. As all 

 know who have found 

 this creature, Ranatra 

 is long and lank, look- 

 ing like a quite thick 

 black darning - needle 

 that had taken to itself 

 six bent pine-needles 

 for legs and two more 

 for breathing -tube. 

 My Ranatra was about 

 two - and-a-half inches 

 long, and his thin self 

 bore no resemblance at My Ranatra< 



all to his cousins, the flat, broad, brown scor- 

 pion-bugs. 



Poor Ranatra ! " The best in this kind are 

 but shadows." It was difficult for people, on his 

 first acquaintance, to believe that he was really 

 " done." He looked more like the skeleton 



