ANAX IMPERATOR 



commerce with ^it as we can fancy the red hawk 

 does. 



Anax is imperious, " bears with no rival near the 

 throne." The lake just now holds two emperors at 

 least, besides, perhaps, their consorts, whom I have 

 not noticed. When one emperor invades the other's 

 realm, a fiery, running duel begins. Up and down the 

 outraged tyrant pursues the invader, both darting, skim- 

 ming just above the lake with their arrowy straight- 

 ness of aim. Anax has not, I should say, the swift- 

 ness of some of the moths, of the humming-bird hawk 

 moth, but his is superlative flight not the less, proud 

 and beautiful as that of any winged thing. 



Not only the lake in the woods, but the rough, boggy 

 patches about it, even the dry, rising ground, are now 

 full of a dragon-fly of quite another character. This 

 is Puella, the little girl, a slip of a thing, with com- 

 pared to the emperor's a weak flight, but not a 

 dancing or bobbing flight like the demoiselle's. The 

 little girl's wings are of the usual crystalline texture, 

 and the body is pure bright blue, with regular rings 

 of black. You see this choice fly flitting over all parts 

 of the lake when the sun is out, constantly settling 

 on the leaves of the water-lilies and any scrap of green 

 or brown-green that thrusts up to the air. 



On a very hot afternoon the place has a tropical 

 look and atmosphere ; an effect produced by these 



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