310 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



cliirino^ tlio winter on the lower side of the fallen 

 oak-leafj and which little kind of blister, about 

 tlie size of a threepenny piece, or not so large, 

 generally contains a minute white maggot. This 

 spot, with its inhabitant, the pheasant pecks from 

 the leaf, and on this the pheasants maintain 

 themselves in good condition. 



I have not time to investigate the interesting 

 insect to which this tiny maggot l3elongs. It only 

 came within my observance within the last year or 

 two, but no doubt the author of ' A Tour round 

 my Garden ' will deduce from it some intimate con- 

 nexion with tlie inhabitants of mighty and departed 

 nations, and leave us to digest the dilemma of 

 wliat the one can by any possibility have to do 

 with the other. 



Darwin, thouo^h with an imagination wild and 

 daring in its flights, i.-^ the only author I have 

 ever read who knows anything of the loves of 

 the draffon-flv ; but, as tlie history of its affections, 

 of its methods and its manners, may be studied 

 by the water-side anywhere on any warm and 

 windless summer-day, or by tlio side of w\\ pools 

 upon the moor, if a student — or, better, a stu- 

 dcntess — likes to walk with me to investigate 



