THE RAINS 123 



The white ants are busy day and night in erecting their 

 long covered galleries over the floors and walls, and 

 at no period of the year are the flies and mosquitoes 

 more annoyingly active. The palm for energy must 

 I think, however, be conceded to the dragonflies. 

 These little creatures have lately appeared ; they ap- 

 peared suddenly and in multitudes innumerable. As 

 I look out on the garden the whole air seems filled with 

 them, but they cause no annoyance ; they never enter 

 the house nor even the verandahs, and they do no 

 damage to the trees or plants in the garden. They 

 pass their time in flitting to and fro through the 

 atmosphere, and this they seem to do the livelong 

 day without a moment's intermission. I have never 

 noticed any of them to alight either on the ground 

 or on trees. At night they depart, and, I presume, 

 settle somewhere, but where I am not able to say. 

 Indeed, to be quite truthful, I have as yet not made 

 much effort to ascertain. 



These Indian dragonflies are larger than our dragon- 

 flies in England, but they are not so graceful either in 

 form or movement; they do not dart forward with quite 

 the same rapidity, nor do they stop and reverse their 

 flight quite so instantaneously. Still they are very in- 

 teresting to watch. Unlike most other flying insects, 

 these dragonflies appear perfectly indifferent to rain. 

 When a shower comes on, the other insects that may be 

 flitting and hovering in the air at once disappear ; they 

 seek shelter from the falling raindrops among the 

 plants and trees, or uwder the roof of some house or 

 shed. But unless the rain descends in a perfect deluge, 



