BRITISH BUTTERFLIES 



of each overlapping spiracle, and is crossed with bands 

 of ^white. The dark eyes glisten like polished green- 

 stone ; and in the transparent gauze of the rainbow- 

 wings lurks every colour of foliage and sky. A robin 

 flits past, with a quick jerk of his wings, and alights on 

 the grass. Disturbed, the dragon-fly flashes off into 

 the sunlight, and, as if pretending to ignore the false 

 alarm, commences in a business-like fashion to hawk 

 for flies near the ditch. Now is witnessed a marvellous 

 display of its powers of flight. Like a miniature airship 

 balanced perfectly between swiftly revolving propellers, 

 the dragon-fly goes straight as an arrow, skimming the 

 heads of the valerian, and nearly touching the top of 

 the furze under the oaks. Suddenly it halts, and its 

 wings rattle and scintillate in the amber light of the 

 morning. Then, reversing the action of its fans, the 

 insect moves backward for an instant, and hangs 

 above the crown of a blue field-scabious in the ditch. 

 Finding that the small flies, which chiefly form its 

 food, have gone from the neighbourhood of the flower, 

 the dragon-fly, with a sharp alteration in the move- 

 ments of the wings, turns head and thorax towards the 

 sky, and, like a clubbed arrow shot from an invisible 

 bow, ascends to the level of the midmost branches of the 

 oaks. Thence, with another equally rapid change of 

 flight, it passes along the outer leaves. Again it stops, 

 and again the sunshine touches the trembling wings. 



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