THE COASTS OF SAINTOXGE. 323 



itself. This mask acts at once like a lip and an arm, 

 seizing the prey in its passage and conveying it to 

 the mouth. When the time of its metamorphosis 

 arrives, the larva draws itself out of the water in 

 which it has lived for nearly a year, and climbs 

 slowly up some neighbouring plant, where it suspends 

 itself with its head downwards. The sun soon dries 

 and hardens its skin, which suddenly bursts and 

 splits. The Dragon-fly first disengages its head and 

 its thorax ; its legs and its wings, which are still soft 

 and without strength, gradually become firmer as 

 they are brought into contact with the air, and in 

 the course of a few hours they have acquired all 

 their vigour. The Dragon-fly then at once abandons 

 the dull and muddy covering, in which it had been 

 so long enveloped, throwing it from it like a cast-off 

 garment ; and having become a perfect insect, it darts 

 forward in search of prey. It may then be seen 

 hovering round its native pools, sometimes poising 

 itself like an eagle or vulture, and sometimes, de- 

 scribing rapid circles, it falls like a dart upon some 

 unfortunate insect, which it seizes and devours with- 

 out pausing in its flight. Love scarcely softens for 

 more than a day the disposition of these ferocious 

 insects, and when they have satisfied the common 

 law of nature and secured the propagation of their 

 species, they die in the same isolation in which they 

 have lived. 



The Termites, their kindred, are of a far more 

 sociable character, for they, like bees and ants, com- 

 bine together into numerous societies, in which indi- 

 viduals of different form represent various castes and 



V -2 



