THEIR APPALLING VOEACITY. 307 



They are, however, permeated with air-tubes, and at 

 every respiration the air is forced into them, so as gradu- 

 ally and slowly to loosen the many folds in which they 

 had been packed. By degrees a tremulous motion shows 

 itself, and the wings begin to show like sails unfurled. 



After a period varying according to the warmth and 

 dryness of the day, the wings are opened to their full 

 extent, and the dragon-fly darts off, to be as fierce and 

 voracious in the air as it had been in the water. 



Its power of wing is marvellous. There is a well- 

 known anecdote of a swallow chasing a dragon-fly into a 

 greenhouse, and vainly endeavouring to catch it, in spite 

 of the confined space which prohibited the full use of its 

 wings. 



Its voracity is almost appalling. A large butterfly, 

 when caught, is gone directly. The dragon-fly crumples 

 up the body of its victim in its powerful jaws, and, 

 though the wings are generally allowed to fall, a part of 

 them will often follow the body and disappear in the 

 dragon-fly's insatiable maw. 



A lion cannot compare with a dragon-fly in point of 

 voracity, Suppose that any one were to assert that a 

 lion had eaten twenty or thirty large ducks, and four or 

 five geese, without pausing, we should say that he was 

 testing our credulity by relating a feat that no animal 

 could perform. 



But, suppose he were to add that the lion, after being 

 cut asunder, did not die, but ate the severed portions of 

 his own body, we should be disposed to set down the 



