THE HYDROPHILUS. 299 



his very kind. He has laid aside his mask, and therewith his 

 grub estate, but retains, as a perfected and brilliant Fly, the 

 very same propensities as when an unsightly crawler, pro- 

 pensities exercised, now, in the devouring of Butterflies in air, 

 instead of Tadpoles in water. 



The arch-fiend with which we shall close our abridged list 

 of Water Devils, is the British Hydrophilus t the devil par excel- 

 lence of the solar microscope, and of exhibitions, a species 

 of Water-Beetle, in its first or larva stage of being. This 

 creature exceeds, perhaps, all its carnivorous fellows in size 

 (measuring, when at maturity, an inch and a half;) in courage 

 as attacking even small fish, and other animals larger than 

 itself; in ferocity, and in the possession of destructive weapons, 

 powerful, remarkably numerous, and singularly adapted to 

 their designed purpose. Broods of these murderers have 

 been passing the winter in embryo, that is, in the egg, en- 

 wrapped like innocents in silken coverlets, or, to speak more 

 correctly, in silken balls, suspended, cradle-like, to the stems of 

 submerged water-weeds. These are now, however, detached 

 from their supports, and may be seen floating on the surface of 

 stagnant pools, exposed to the genial influence of the sun. By 

 this, if not already, they will be soon awakened into life, when 

 their first employment will be to gnaw a hole in their nests, 

 whence they will descend to the bottom of the water, each a 

 walking and swimming little animal, with six legs, a set of hairy, 

 fin-like appendages, and a bi-forked tail. But most conspi- 



