60 GNAT-DANCE TO MUSIC. 



tions of vanity, exclusively confined among all Gnats to the 

 masculine gender. Gnats' balls, therefore, contrary to usual 

 custom, are made up of beaux. 



"'Tis merry in the hall when beards wag all," 



says a morose proverb, steeped in the boozing barbarism of 

 days gone by, and these ungallant Flies would seem, still, to 

 think it merry in the air when their dames are not there. 



Apropos of dancing, we may here mention one peculiar mode 

 of Gnat practice, which came the other day under our obser- 

 vation. It may have been remarked before, or it may not, at 

 all events our note is in season and will serve, if for nothing 

 else, to illustrate the assertion that a habit of noticing Insect 

 movements may often amuse a stray minute which might 

 otherwise be wholly lost in vacancy. Well, one of these 

 sportive gentry having made itself free of our parlour, 

 presently deserted the window and came to suspend itself in 

 air directly over the cage of our favourite canary, which was 

 placed on a table near the fire. Here, with incredible activity 

 and perseverance, the Insect kept up its "pas d' extase" alter- 

 nately rising and falling for more than half an hour without 

 intermission, never deviating from its position over the little 

 musician's head, but evidently coming lower so as almost to 

 touch the top of the cage whenever the bird renewed its 

 occasionally broken song. The attraction of the latter was 

 unquestionable its cause dubious, also, whether of an indi- 

 vidual or general character. If general, may it not be that by 



