THE DRAGON-FLIES. 197 



Very different in habits from the peaceful unarmed 

 May-flies are the insects of the group to which we 

 have next to turn our attention, the well-known 

 Dragon-flies, whose graceful evolutions over the sur- 

 face of the still pond, or gently gliding stream, must 

 have excited the admiration of most of my readers, as 

 they have certainly given origin to the French appel- 

 lation of Demoiselles applied to these insects, for it 

 must be confessed, as Messrs. Kirby and Spence 

 observe, that in any other point of view this com- 

 parison with young ladies would be anything but 

 complimentary to the fair sex. Whilst hovering over 

 the quiet surface of the water, or sweeping rapidly 

 through the air in elegant curves, with a power of 

 wing scarcely rivalled by any of the great rapacious 

 birds, the business of love-making, the only employ- 

 ment of the delicate Ephemerae, although it doubtless 

 does occasionally enter into the thoughts of the 

 Dragon-flies, is generally kept out of them by grosser 

 considerations, of the necessity of finding a constant 

 supply of food for the insatiable stomach enclosed in 

 their "lean and hungry-looking" bodies. Nor is 

 this attended with much difficulty from the abun- 

 dance of small insects which undergo their transform- 

 ations in the water, and which, during the hot days of 

 summer and autumn, are always to be found hovering 

 buoyantly over its surface, engaged for the most part 

 in the prosecution of their amours. Through these 

 the Dragon-fly sweeps perpetually on his powerful 

 wings, ruthlessly cutting short their joyous dances by 

 the sudden snap of his enormous jaws, and appropri- 

 ating their substance to his own peculiar benefit. 



These ravenous insects, of which there are a con- 

 siderable number of species, form the tribe of the 



