48 UP AND DOWN THE BROOKS. 



transform into a red dragon-fly as early as March 

 llth. Unfortunately this red 

 color is evanescent after 

 death, much more so than the 

 blue of the larger dragon-flies. 

 The cast-off, spidery skins 

 Red Dragon-fly larva, retain their shape, and around 

 the opening that the dragon- 

 fly leaves in the back 011 coming out are white 

 threads, looking as though they were the bast- 

 ings that held the dress together. " Wasserjung- 

 fern," " Virgins of the water," say the Germans 

 when they speak of the dragon-flies. " Snake- 

 stanger," or " snake-stang," is an old name sug- 

 gested perhaps, as Dyer thinks, by the belief that 

 the bite of the dragon-fly was as venomous as that 

 of a snake. 



I do not know why the dragon-fly should have 

 so bad a reputation. The larvae are certainly 

 hideous enough to frighten people, but it hardly 

 seems as if the red, blue, or green dragon-flies 

 need be much more frightful than so many bril- 

 liant humming-birds. I do not know what 

 amount of horror might arise in the minds of 

 those who now view the dragon-fly with supersti- 

 tious fear did they know that the insect looks at 

 them through compound eyes the facets of which 

 are six-sided. 



An army of teasels have marched down the hill 

 in one place almost to the borders of this brook. 



