28 GNAT PUPA. 



wards, tail upwards. Why chooses he this strange position ? 

 Just for the same reason that we rather prefer, when taking a 

 dabble in the waves, to have our heads above water, for the 

 convenience, namely, of receiving a due supply of air, which 

 the little swimmer in question sucks in through a sort of tube 

 in his tail. This breathing apparatus, as well as the tail itself, 

 serves also for a buoy, and both end in a sort of funnel, com- 

 posed of hairs arranged in a star-like form and anointed with 

 an oil by which they repel water. When tired of suspension 

 near the surface, our little swimmer has only to fold up these 

 divergent hairs, and plump, he sinks down to the bottom. He 

 goes, however, provided with the means of re-ascension, a 

 globule of air which the oil enables him to retain at his funnel's 

 ends ; on re-opening which he again rises whenever the fancy 

 takes him. But yet' a little while, and a new era arrives in 

 the existence of this buoyant creature : buoyant in his first 

 stage of Larva, in his second of Pupa he is buoyant still. 

 Yet, in resemblance, how unlike ! But lately topsy-turvy, his 

 altered body first assumes what we should call its natural 

 position, and he swims, head upwards, because within it there 

 is now contained a different, but equally curious apparatus for 

 inhaling the atmospheric fluid. Seated behind his head, arises 

 a pair of respirators, not very much unlike the aural appendages 

 of an ass, to which they have been compared ; and through these 

 he feeds on air, requiring now no grosser aliment. At his 

 nether extremity there expands a fish-like finny tail by help of 

 which he can either float or strike at pleasure through the 

 water. 



Thus passes with our buoyant Pupa the space of about a 

 week ; and then another and a more important change comes 

 " o'er the spirit of his dream." While a noon-day sun is warm 

 upon the water, he rises to the surface and above it, elevating 

 both head and shoulders, as if gasping for the new enjoyments 

 which await him. His breast swells, his confining corslet 

 bursts, and the head, all plumed and decorated for a more 



