WATER DEVILS. 115 



their fellows. Well ! there was nothing in this greatly dis- 

 cordant with the general order of things, natural and moral ; 

 but for this very reason the train of thinking it suggested 

 soon brought disturbance to that sensation of peacefulness 

 which all besides encouraged, and we rose from our willow 

 chair almost wishing that we had known nothing of Ento- 

 mology. 



To return now to our own Insect " Devils " of the pond, 

 with whom there is no harm in making a little farther acquain- 

 tance. First, for those black lanky-looking creatures gliding 

 about the water's surface ; of these our pond (as most others) 

 affords two varieties ; both of a spare and slender make, but 

 one so delicately formed that even its body is scarcely thicker 

 than a line. This line is broken, however, by two prominent 

 hemispheric eyes, which, though set really in the pigmy's 

 monstrously long head, appear to be in the middle of his 

 slender body. He is usually wingless, or with only short 

 parallel elytra. This is the Hydrometra stagnorum, or Water 

 Measurer, a common frequenter, from March to August, of 

 every ditch as well as pond, where he glides about to murder 

 the innocent. 



The fellow-destroyer, 1 by which this is usually accompanied, 

 is a " bird of the same dark feather," only considerably more 

 bulky, and furnished with close-setting wings. He rows him- 

 self merrily along by his hinder feet, the sides of his body 

 being rendered impervious to water by a coat of silvery hairs. 

 Somewhat resembling him in habits and in form, though with 

 body far less lean and long, and with its darker hues enlivened 

 by red and white, is another gliding or rowing destructive, 

 completing the " fatal three," which, insects themselves, are 

 for ever cutting short the slender threads of insect life. It was 

 not this morning visible on the willow pond ; and though we 

 have at times observed it on still waters, it usually prefers to 



1 Gerris lacusiris. 



