124 ON A DRAOON flv. 



As for the larva, it is more masked or truly larva-like than any other 

 I know. Its form, in the parts of head, ti'mik, and abdomen, seems an 

 ensemble preserved to us in microed size, typical of life on the 

 malignant side that became dominant and monstrous through the 

 three great geological periods. In its jaws it has the faculty for 

 snapping possessed by the huge mollusc ; in its neck and body seg- 

 ments the writhing of the saurian ; in its legs the grip of the 

 cephalopod, and in the abdomen the vices that held to the mammalian. 



In habit it has the stealth of a cat. It can prowl like a wolf, snatch 

 like a monkey, snap like a crocodile, and bite like a bull-dog. 



In fact, in both its states of water and air it can do everything 

 wicked, except the one thing it popularly is supposed to do best — 

 namely, sting, and it has a mean way of rarely seizing anything larger 

 or stronger than itself, choosing small fry and never tackling big folk. 



A caddis-worm, after the covering is cut off, makes a good supper 

 for a dragon-fly larva ; but it is careful to seize the caddis in the rear 

 of the head for fear it would seem of the powerful mouth with which 

 the latter is armed. These greedy creatures will also take an ordinary 

 garden worm nearly every morning. One about their own length 

 suits them best, for if the worm be too long so that one end of it can 

 get a hold or purchase between two stones, it will draw away, dragging 

 the larva until its large roiind jutting eyes meet the obstruction, and 

 the enemy is peeled off to his amaze, if not to his damage. When a 

 worm disappears in this waj' the larvas will sometimes stay watching 

 the opening for a long time with their heads turned down, and a little 

 on one side, like a dog at a rat hole. 



The snatch of their jaw-forceps is so quick it takes good eyesight 

 to see it ; but a worm by its quickened movements when di'opped into 

 the water in front of them often causes them to miss once or twice, and 

 the action repeated gives a good opportunity for catching sight of it. 

 The worm can be lowered and dangled in front of them, held by just 

 one turn of a fine silk thi-ead, out of which they will drag it. They 

 will gorge a worm their own length in two or three minutes, during 

 which time the movement up and down of the abdomen in breathing 

 is very marked, as if heaving to suck the food in. The gorging is helped 

 by the nippers, which take a fresh hold higher up before each piece 

 is bitten off by the jaws and passed into the gullet. 



Although they will tackle a snail at times when hungry, with, how- 

 ever, the risk of being partly drawn into the mouth of the shell and held 

 there for a time, they will, very strangely, let a snail slowly crawl along 

 and over their body without starting away, as they mostly do when 

 touched by other moving things in the water. I have thought that per- 

 haps the sliding movement of the snail over them may groom or shampoo 

 them, as it were, and clean off parasites and other attached things. 



In ordinary course, when no prey is in sight, their crawling 

 motion is very slow, as if their watery home made them stiff and 

 rheumatic ; but this is only their artfulness, for they no sooner sight 

 any choice food in motion at a short distance than their slow action 



