228 ANIMAL LIFE 



burrow in the ground like rabbits to bring forth their 

 young, and share the desert and veldt with the jerboa 

 and the Cape hare. Their development is a gradual 

 one, with no long period of exposed unprotected state 

 of helplessness. They begin life as relatively large 

 heavily yolked eggs hidden in the ground. They 

 hatch as strong insects capable of biting and assimi- 

 lating the leafy food that surrounds them. They 

 grow from strength to strength without the internal 

 strain of adolescent change or the outer stress of meta- 

 morphosis. They emerge upon the sunlit or moonlit 

 meadow which has fattened them, and either in its 

 soil or in the ground of some distant country they 

 provide for the welfare of the race. 



The Dragon-fly. If the ancient orthopterous in- 

 sects form the type of dominant herbivorous ground- 

 lings that grow by increments and only momentarily 

 fly from blade to blade, the dragon-fly is equally the 

 example of the ancient carnivore that grows in the 

 water and then lives on the wing. Flight, which to a 

 grasshopper is a temporary exertion or a colonising 

 movement, is the natural habit of the dragon-fly and 

 is carried to a degree of perfection that is reached 

 by few other animals. So aerial has the dragon-fly 

 become that it can no longer walk, and only uses its 

 legs for holding prey or for perching. This hawk-like 

 flight involves the renewal of a light food at frequent 

 intervals, and the structure of the dragon-fly is a 

 superb example of the means of obtaining the juices 

 of insects. Its whole aspect is that of a dominant 



