MAY 127 



fangs firmly fixed in the flesh of a living trout, about two 

 inches long. They formed a strange group the brilliant 

 little fish, a miniature of swiftness and grace, writhing 

 hopelessly in the lethal embrace of a creature truly 

 loathsome of aspect. There they are to this day, con- 

 signed to immortality in a phial of spirit. 



This jEschna larva knew how to spell Opportunity. 

 Had he waited till another summer, the boot might have 

 been on the other leg, for these unlovely crawlers are 

 reckoned a delicacy by many predatory fish. I have 

 found numbers of them, recently swallowed, in the gullet 

 of a small pike. 



As if to complete the sinister attributes of the youthful 

 dragon-fly, he is an unscrupulous cannibal. At all stages 

 of life, his first and last impulse is to devour ; and whereas 

 mother jEschna is prolific and her brood numerous, it 

 often happens that there is not enough provender to go 

 round. In such cases the larvae unmask and grapple with 

 each other, and he who first gets a good grip with his 

 hinged fangs remains the sole survivor. 



They are large, as British insects go, these dragon-flies. 

 Anax formosus measures about four inches long ; yet are 

 they but degenerate descendants of a formidable ancestry. 

 Monsieur Brongniart has collected fossils from the carboni- 

 ferous rocks at Commentry measuring two feet across the 

 wings. 



XXXII 



In the case last described, a small trout was the victim, 

 and had all my sympathy as the nobler of the The Migde _ 

 two combatants. But from the same shelf my meanours 

 friend took down a larger jar, containing seven of Trout 

 damning proofs of the profligacy of Salmo fario. Often 



