Couriers of the Air. 77 



There is one insect to which attention may 

 be drawn, as affording a most striking example 

 of speed among lowly-winged creatures. That 

 is the dragon-fly. I have frequently had an 

 opportunity of dropping into company with 

 the largest species (Libellula grandis], in its 

 aerial excursions in autumn by a particular road- 

 side, along which there was a rushy-mar- 

 gined pool. At such times the writer has 

 been occasionally on foot, more frequently 

 driving. On foot one has scarcely any means 

 of judging of its speed, for in a moment it 

 is past and gone out of sight. But what is the 

 experience when you are driving, say at ten or 

 twelve miles an hour? This rapid voyager 

 passes over, proceeds beyond you almost out of 

 sight, then turns, swerving widely from right to 

 left, repasses again in both directions, traversing 

 repeatedly the ground, while you are travelling, 

 or rather dragging, over the same space of about 

 a mile only once. We are apt to exaggerate in 

 these matters, but with every allowance, having 

 compared the flight of a dragon-fly with that of a 

 passing hawk, swallow, or cuckoo, I have com- 

 puted that this large species is capable of flying 

 at a speed of from eighty to one hundred miles 

 an hour an enormous draw upon the creature's 

 nerves and muscular powers, as manifested by 

 occasional rests of a few minutes upon a bush or 

 a piece of sedge, its habits not requiring unin- 

 terrupted flight at such a pace. Perhaps the 



