34 UP AND DOWN THE BROOKS. 



native brook, the colony of twenty-two set up 

 housekeeping. Unlike other beetles in neighbor- 

 ing jars of water, these twenty-two unanimously 

 rejected the custom, fashionable among many 

 water-creatures, of breathing through the abdo- 

 men, and, instead, on making their ascents to 

 the surface of the water, put up their heads after 

 the manner of HydrophUidce usually. 



Although commonly silent these beetles were 

 capable, when displeased, or when frightened by 

 the danger of capture, of giving squeaks that 

 might be heard across an ordinary room. These 

 squeaks sounded somewhat like the shrieks of a 

 fly when imprisoned in a spider's web, or like the 

 croaks of a feeble- voiced toad. They were par- 

 tially quiet when living by themselves, but from 

 a jar^of mixed beetles and bugs the shrieks were 

 frequently heard. 



Not long after the twenty-two set up house- 

 keeping, there began to appear, on sticks and 

 leaves in the jar, white egg-cases, as large as 

 beans, or three eighths of an inch long, and a little 

 more than one eighth in diameter, woven of white 

 silk in a cylindrical shape and having sometimes 

 a thin floating strip of white hanging from the 

 top of the egg-cases. This strip was sometimes 

 about five eighths of an inch long, and occasionally 

 when an egg was taken out of the water the strip 

 would fall back over the closed opening. One 

 unacquainted with these eggs might think that 



