FROGS, BOYS, AND OTHER SMALL DEER. 177 



account. When I deceived the Whirligigs they 

 were in captivity, and the thread with which I let 

 down such bits of cloth may have been so fine 

 as not to be noticed. 



One finds in May some of the little Water- 

 skaters, very minute as compared with the adults, 

 yet looking like them as real bugs generally do. 

 The little Skaters are very nimble, and seem to . 

 know immediately that a bottle is not their cus- 

 tomary home. So small are they that unless you 

 are near a pool, looking intently at the surface, 

 you would hardly notice what they are, and I do 

 not think that it enters into the boys' heads that 

 these are the same as the big Water-spiders. At 

 least one boy that I spoke to about it seemed to 

 be ignorant of the fact. But such minutiaB of 

 pond life is not generally regarded by boys. I 

 have heard one of them call a snail a " beetle " 

 and another call a water-shrimp a " bug." 



The latter fresh-water crustaceans are very nu- 

 merous in these pools. The sticks and hiding- 

 places are alive with them. They have five joints 

 to their legs and about thirteen segments to their 

 bodies. Probably they are akin to Gammarus 

 robustus. They are a nuisance, for the bug- 

 hunter can hardly shake the dredger clear of 

 them. Some will stick until the bug-hunter is on 

 the meadow going home, and will then crawl out 

 and demand to be taken back to the brook. One 

 hastens to shake the crawling things out in the 



