60 UP AND DOWN THE BROOKS. 



I do not think it is possible for two of these 

 water-tiger larvae to live together in the same 

 bottle. A battle will sooner or later occur and 

 one will be killed. The indiscriminate slaughter 

 of victims indulged in by these larvae soon im- 

 parts to an uncared-for jar an " ancient and fish- 

 like smell," since the larvae do not devour their 

 victims whole, but suck out the juice and then 

 drop the bodies on the bottom of the jar. A 

 keeper of these larvae will find himself called on 

 often to perform the office of undertaker. 



But the sickle-jaws do not always prove all-pow- 

 erful. There are individuals that refuse to be 

 pruned by such a pair of shears. A big dragon- 

 fly larva is a match for the shears-bearer. I left 

 one of the Dytiscidce larvae once in a bottle of 

 large dragon-fly larvae, and when I came back 

 the shears-bearer was himself divided into two 

 parts. The dragon-flies had conquered. 



Like some of the dragon-fly larvae when they 

 are about to enter upon the struggle of coming 

 out with wings, some of these beetle-larvae think 

 that " the melancholy days have come " when the 

 time approaches for leaving the water and bur- 

 rowing in the ground for the pupa-sleep before be- 

 coming beetles. One of my beetle-larvae, having 

 evidently attained its full size, seemed to be in- 

 capable of crawling out of the water. Hoping to 

 save him I assisted him out on a pot of earth, and 

 waited to see him bury himself. But evidently 



