WA TER-BOA TMEN. 



55 



plenty of fish in the brook, and anybody can have 

 them," and she looked at me with a benevo- 

 lently generous air, which, alas ! was quite thrown 

 away. 



The eggs of the water-boatman I have found in 

 March and July on sticks in my jar. These eggs 

 are oval, white, and about one 

 sixteenth of an inch long. 

 They are sometimes in short 

 rows, but often are scattered 

 irregularly over the sticks. 



One day I noticed on Ra- 

 natra's back an oval, white 

 thing, and wondered what had 

 befallen him. I fished him 

 out and looked, and lo ! it 

 was an egg laid on his back 

 by some much-deceived water- 

 boatman that had taken him 

 for a stick. Another egg 

 adorned one of his legs. Another time I found 

 Ranatra with three boatman eggs on one leg, two 

 on the leg opposite, and an old one on his back. 

 Most likely these were the eggs of a lady boat- 

 man that was afterwards numbered among Rana- 

 tra's victims. How touching a spectacle to see 

 the mother confiding to her murderer the future 

 welfare of her children. 



The infant water-boatman of the age of one 

 or two days is very pretty and cunning, looking 



Egg-s of Water-boatman 

 in my bottle. 



