204 UP AND DOWN THE BROOKS. 



Come here in April when dock grows at the 

 bottom of this bank. Come down and see the 

 leaves. No matter if you do tumble. It is as 

 well to tumble down for knowledge sometimes as 

 to climb for it. All knowledge is not on the 

 heights. 



Here on the back of a dock-leaf are the Brook- 

 side Folk that I would have you see. Little 

 black mites, but destined to be beautiful green- 

 winged small beetles, representatives of the 

 Clirysomelidce. Many a time you may notice 

 the marred dock-leaves by the roads as you pass, 

 or catch a glimpse of the small, yellow clusters 

 of eggs of these beetles on some stem, or turned- 

 over leaf. The larvae have such a habit of drop- 

 ping from the leaves that I wonder the mother- 

 beetles place their eggs so near this brook. I 

 should think that the children would fall in. 

 Probably many a miserable little black mite 

 meets this sad fate. 



Keep some of these larva? in a bottle with 

 some soft, damp earth at the bottom, and with 

 fresh dock-leaves, and you will find that when 

 full grown the larvae will descend and make for 

 themselves little burrows in the soil where they 

 will be transformed to light yellow pupae. Put 

 one of these pupae under a microscope, and you 

 will see the short, tiny, black hairs reaching out 

 from the head and the dark dots standing for eyes. 

 Does he know, as he lies motionless in yellow 



