Marsh. 203 



skin on the back splits open, the dull wing-cases slide apart, 

 and after a few wriggling motions the dragon-fly in jewelled 

 harness emerges, its wings, however, being small and 

 crumpled. Rapidly these expand, and the dragon-fly wings 

 its way to attack other winged flies, just as in its earlier 

 stages it waged bitter war on the inhabitants of the pool in 

 which it lived. The poet has observed this metamorphosis, 

 for he sings 



" 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 ; 



Through crofts and pastures wet with dew, 



A living flash of light he flew." 



Yonder is a row of strange-looking willows, with short, 

 thick trunks, and large massive heads from which rise 

 numberless thin shoots and twigs. These trees have the 

 young shoots lopped off every year for the purpose of basket- 

 making, and it is this continuous cutting that gives them 

 their peculiar appearance. Walking over to them, we find 

 that the leaves have been eaten, and that some of the 

 branches are almost bare. There is one of the culprits, a 

 large green caterpillar with white stripes down the side of 

 its back and a short horny spike near the end of its body. 

 This is the caterpillar of the Eyed Hawk moth, and, see ! 

 there are several others stretched out at length near the end 

 of the twigs ; they look so much like a terminal leaf at a 

 little distance, that, in spite of their large size, they are not 

 very conspicuous. Taking one of them in our hands, we see 

 that it has a large head and powerful jaws, whilst on each 

 cheek six simple convex lenses represent its eyes. Its body 

 is made up of fourteen rings or segments, the first three 



