126 DRAGON-FLIES 



receives no impression of colour, only of glitter and motion. 

 This bold insect is no whit less ravenous than the skulking 

 ' nymph ' which he was yesterday. That splendid range of 

 flight is no mere exultation in light or heat : it has its 

 deadly purpose, and ever as he roves ^Eschna snatches 

 other winged creatures and crams them in his maw. But, 

 at all events, he is a chivalrous raider. Compared with 

 his proceedings during the year two years three years 

 (nobody knows exactly the duration of the larval phase) 

 which he spent crawling about in the mud, his present 

 career shines like Claude Duval's beside that of the wretch 

 who puts rat-poison in his victim's broth. 



The life history of these great flies is, indeed, one long 

 chronicle of rapine, but it is only in its earlier stages that 

 it appears repulsive. The larva or nymph, slow-footed, 

 matching the mud with its dingy hue, easily escapes 

 notice. Often it remains motionless for hours, watching 

 intently with enormous, lidless eyes, until some un- 

 suspecting creature moves near its lair. Then of a sudden 

 it drops a jointed mask from its face; the mask shoots 

 out like an arm ending with a pair of toothed claspers. 

 It is said that the larvse of some species have the power of 

 making a sudden spring upon their prey, but there is 

 a good deal of doubt surrounding their habits, which 

 careful attention might serve to dispel. 



Anyhow, it is beyond dispute that these sluggish larvse 

 manage to get hold of free-swimming creatures far larger 

 than themselves. A friend of mine was fishing a lake in 

 Sutherland lately, when it fell a dead calm. Waiting for 

 a propitious breeze, he noticed a disturbance on the 

 surface not far from the boat. He popped a landing-net 

 under it and brought out a large dragon-fly larva with its 



