THE DRAWING OF THE SEIXE. 177 



Corixse and water-boatmen are unequalled examples 

 of tireless animal activity. Even when swimming with 

 the distinct purpose of securing their prey, we look 

 upon them in the light of machines rather than living 

 animals : as self-winding engines wound up and set to 

 capture diminutive insects and newlj-hatched minnows 

 — but the water-scorpion walks deliberately along the 

 bottom of the pond, looking for food, seeking desirable 

 shelter, and in all things taking the world so easily that 

 we are led to admire it, while we simply wonder at, and 

 are bewildered by, the others. 



Unlike the other bugs that throughout summer are 

 its daily companions, the water-scorpion does not appear 

 to hibernate. However cold the weather, there will al- 

 ways be found numbers of these " scorpions " taking a 

 quiet stroll, where the sun, here and there, lights up a 

 corner in the ice-bound pond. When the ice is very 

 clear I have often seen them stepping carefully along the 

 mud, avoiding troublesome obstructions, peeping under 

 bits of dead leaves, and giving now and then a sly kick 

 at the caddis- worms that always thickly bestrew the level 

 reaches of the sand. Perhaps it was accidental in every 

 case, but the appearances were strongly in favor of the 

 view that the bug deliberately gave the half-helpless 

 worm a vigorous kick that sent it whirling end over end 

 in a ludicrous manner. 



One might think that, with these, little fish and all 

 defenseless forms of aquatic life were quite suflBciently 

 persecuted, if, indeed, they had not more than their share 

 of life-destroying insect pests, but, on the fishes' account, 



8* 



