130 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



and striking-looking insects have no common specific 

 names with us ? The one exception known to me is 

 the small beautiful virgo just spoken of, and this is 

 called hi books " Demoiselle " and " King George," but 

 whether these names are used by the people anywhere 

 or not, I am unable to say. On this point I consulted 

 an old water-keeper of my acquaintance on the Test. 

 He has been keeper for a period of forty-six years, 

 and is supposed to -be very intelligent, and to know 

 everything about the creatures that exist in those waters 

 and water-meadows. He assured me that he never 

 heard the names of Demoiselle and King George. " We 

 calls them dragons and horse-stingers," he said. " And 

 they do sting, and no mistake, both horse and man." 

 He then explained that the dragon-fly dashes at its 

 victim, inflicts its sting, and is gone so swiftly that it 

 is never detected in the act ; but the pain is there, and 

 sometimes blood is drawn. 



Nor had the ancient water-keeper ever heard another 

 vernacular name given by Moses Harris for this same 

 species kingfisher, to wit. Moses Harris, one of our 

 earliest entomologists, wrote during the last half of 

 the eighteenth century, but the date of his birth 

 and the facts of his life are not known. He began to 

 publish in 1766, his first work being on butterflies and 

 moths. One wonders if the unforgotten and at-no-time- 

 neglected Gilbert White never heard of his contem- 

 porary Moses, and never saw his beautiful illustrations 

 of British insects, many of which still keep their bright 



