178 UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



I am sorry to say there are two more, and one of them 

 the largest and fiercest of them all. The smaller of the 

 two is, in Poaetquissings, not at all common, but is a ver- 

 itable crosspatch, and makes up in ferocity what may be 

 lacking in numbers. Usually they are recognized as 

 present by the collector being bitten, and they then 

 may pass as water-boatmen, which possess the same in- 

 convenient habit. It is to be presumed, however, that 

 after years of experience a difference in the bite will be 

 detected, and the more precise naturalist will proceed to 

 investigate whether his fingers were nipped by a true 

 water-boatman or a Pelocoris. For the benefit of the 

 inexperienced it should be said that the same remedy, 

 mud, is equally efficacious. 



This water-boatman-like Pelocoris has the one good 

 quality of being an insect-eater ; and will dine off a co- 

 rixa as readily as a new-born fish. The two insects are 

 not very closely related, and so perhaps Pelocoris cannot 

 be considered cannibal ; just as we look upon it as a 

 mere matter of taste whether or not man eats roast 

 monkey, but — 



The last but one, and largest, of the lot has not re- 

 ceived a common name, and were not " water-tiger " 

 preoccupied I would suggest it. Its scientific name, in 

 English, is spearmouth. 



This creature may be crudely described as a giant 

 water-scorpion, for, instead of being a little more than 

 half an inch long, it is nearly three inches, and wide in 

 proportion. As the spearmouth is, in color, much like 

 the muddy bottom of a pond, it realizes the protection 



