126 ON A DRAGON FLY. 



It adds much to your cliauces of observing if you first mark out 

 where they are located, for they are sliy, aud as symbolised by the 

 large development of eye-faculty they are correspondingly swift in 

 flight ; but the kind chiefly found here — the Agrion — is, luckily for 

 learners, the least active. The eye of this species seems a millenocular 

 stereoscope, and is a wonder under the magnifier, looking like the round 

 knob of the stopper of a glass decanter cut into ten thousand facets, 

 each one of which is said to receive a picture of the objects around. 

 What can the optic lobe of its microscopic brain be like ? This is a fine 

 point. The best mode I know of preserving specimens of this is never to 

 catch any, but to leave them to enjoy their existence. Some procure 

 them to cure them, but it is a ragged piece of business at the best, and 

 certainly is no longer necessary for anyone who will become a member 

 of the Birmingham Natural History Society, with access to the beauti- 

 ful works on their form and colour to be found in its library. 



Don't make any attempt to chase or run them down, but seating 

 yourself very gently, where you can look about and have them for a 

 yard or two within reach, you leave them to their sports. They will 

 hawk around, but never go far afield, and by remaining in one spot 

 you are more likely to catch sight of a larva, like a Captain Boy ton, or a 

 diver in his water-tight dress, coming up out of the water on to 

 the vegetation. The male in the winged fonn rather bears out the rule 

 of the gayer clothing, but mostly in primitive or simple colour, and is of 

 the two sexes a little more active. The females settle more frequently 

 on the vegetation. 



Very soon you will descry a male on the wing, which you keep in 

 your eye as far as the range will admit without turning your head, 

 on the look out for a partner. This is done with an elan that a 

 Frenchman might admire, seizing her with such force, that sometimes, 

 like a harrier overrunning his game, they topple over together. This 

 brings their wings into such juxtaposition that their flight is impeded, 

 and after a time they settle. Of about '200 sorts in England, nearly 

 a tithe may be found here, mostly with blue about them, and to see 

 this action of seizure you cannot resist the simile of a policeman chasing 

 and securing a runaway. 



The plan to keep them captured until the deposit of the eggs begins 

 is this : For catching the Stickleback without hurt, the best plan is the 

 open silk thread net which I suggested (" Midland Naturalist," 

 1881, page 110). In this case, to make your work easy, you have ready 

 a glass shade about seven inches across and ten inches high, such as 

 is used to cover small chimney ornaments. Let it be white and thin, 

 with, if possible, a knob at the top, attached to about a foot of fine 

 wire or thread so as to hang it from the stout joint of a fishing rod or a 

 stick about five feet long. If it hasn't a knob you have to fix a lashing, 

 which is awkward. You also have ready a thin piece of cork or light 

 wood about nine or ten inches across. This is to slip under to stand the 

 shade upon. Keep these and a pair of scissors all ready within reach. 



Having beforehand chosen a good spot and placed yourself where 



