DREDGING NOTES. 3 



are confined, than one of the hungry Dytiscidce 

 will pounce on the unlucky creature. Another 

 beetle, looking up from the bottom of the jar, 

 will behold the prize to which his 

 brother has fallen heir, and straight- 

 way, filled with covetousness, will 

 rush upward through the water to 

 pull the desired morsel away if pos- 

 sible. One beetle will tug in one 

 direction, the other in another ; they 

 rush through the water, shaking their j)tiscus 

 victim in perfect fury, till a person 

 watching the battle might almost hear the first 

 beetle squeak, " I will have it," and the other 

 reply, " You shan't." And so the fight goes on, 

 till one of the beetles conquers, and departs to 

 enjoy the spoils of war. 



Numbers of silvery beetles, the water-boat- 

 men, or Notonectidce, are brought to the surface, 

 wrathfully skipping around in the dredger, and 

 sometimes nimbly hopping back into the brook 

 just as they are about to be transferred to the 

 pail. Well do I remember my amazement, one 

 day during my first acquaintance with these bee- 

 tles, when, having transferred my silvery treas- 

 ures to a pan of water, I had sat down to watch 

 them as they swam on their backs, and, suddenly, 

 one, the prettiest of the number, having turned 

 over, flew straight out into the air, passed my ear 

 with a booming sound like that of an angry 



