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the little creatures collected so much talked and 

 written about, that it has been found convenient to 

 invent English names for them, and thus we have, in 

 moths, wood-tiger, leopard, goat, gipsy, ermine, wood- 

 swift, vapourer, drinker, tippet, lappet, puss, Kentish 

 glory, emperor, frosted green, satin carpet, coronet, 

 marbled beauty, rustic wing and rustic shoulder-knot, 

 golden ear, purple cloud, and numberless others. In 

 fact, one could not capture the obscurest little miller 

 that flutters round a reading-lamp which the Lepi- 

 dopterist would not be able to find a pretty name for. 

 The dragon-flies, being no man's hobby, are known 

 only by the old generic English names of dragons, 

 horse -stingers, adder -stingers, and devil's darning- 

 needles. Adder-stinger is one of the commonest 

 names in the New Forest, but it is often simply 

 " adder." One day while walking with a friend on 

 a common near Headley, we asked some boys if there 

 were any adders there. "Oh yes," answered a little 

 fellow, "you will see them by the stream flying up 

 and down over the water." The name does not mean 

 that dragon-flies sting adders, but that, like adders, 

 they are venomous creatures. This very common and 

 wide-spread notion of the insect's evil disposition and 

 injuriousness is due to its shape and appearance the 

 great fixed eyes, bright and sinister, and the long 

 snake -like plated or scaly body which, when the 

 insect is seized, curls round in such a threatening 

 manner. The colouring, too, may have contributed 



