330 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC INSECTS CH. 



summer half-holiday all too short for the exploration 

 of pond and stream, the Dragon-fly larva, with its 

 dingy colours, its forbidding shape, and its predatory 

 habits, excited the keenest curiosity. We saw it 

 stretch out its great paw and secure an unsuspecting 

 victim. Some of us watched with eager eyes the 

 emergence of the winged fly. Most of us were 

 satisfied, however, to read a prosaic abridgment of 



Fig. 95.— Libellula depressa. From Ch.irpentier. 



that vivid description of the process of extrication, 

 which, with so much else, wc owe to Reaumur. 

 Either by observation or by reading we all know 

 enough of that marvellous change to feel the beauty 

 of Tennyson's verses : — 



To-day I saw the dragon-fly 



Come from the wells where he did lie, 



An inner impulse rent the veil 



Of his old husk ; from head to tail 



Came out clear plates of sapphire mail. 



He dried his wings : like gauze they grew, 



Thro' crofts and pastures wet with dew f 



A living flash of light he flew. '4 



