330 THE ANGLER-NATUKALIST. 



flights do these insects appear, that the Trout may fre- 

 quently be seen lying with their noses just under water, 

 sucking them in by the dozen with hardly an effort or 

 movement; and on one occasion I found in the stomach .of 

 a good-sized fish a mass of Ephemerae which must certainly 

 have numbered many hundreds. 



The name ' Day-fly ' owes its origin to the shortness of 

 the life of this species. Some live several days ; others 

 take wing with the setting sun and are dead before 

 morning; and a large proportion, again, measure their 

 span by minutes, and expire within the hour that gives 

 them birth. It has been noticed that the May-flies of the 

 Rhine are always seen in the air shortly before the rising 

 of the evening star, making their appearance in such clouds 

 as almost to darken the sky; and, generally, the season 

 or hour when the chrysalides of the different Ephemerae 

 assume their winged condition maintains a kind of regu- 

 larity in accordance with the temperature of the air or the 

 rise and fall of the water. 



The May-fly remains in the larval, and subsequently in 

 the chrysalis state for one, two, or three years, and up to 

 the time of its flight is a purely aquatic insect : the differ- 

 ence between the two stages is shown in the engraving op- 

 posite, the figure in the centre representing the form of the 

 chrysalis, which differs from that of the larva in possessing 

 rudimentary wings contained in a case on its back. The 

 sides of both insects, it will be observed, are furnished with 

 small fringes of hair, which when put into motion serve 



