server of insect life relates an account 

 of a chase between a swallow and an 

 immense dragonfly, in which the con- 

 test lasted a long time. The swallow 

 evidently had hopes of catching the 

 insect, but finally, after a long cam- 

 paign, gave it up and let the fly escape. 

 It has been claimed that the dragonfly 

 was such a voracious devourer of mos- 

 quitoes that these small pests were 

 thrown into a panic if a dragonfly ap- 

 proached them. It was declared that 

 a fly confined in a room would speedily 

 clear it of mosquitoes, but repeated 

 experiments failed to substantiate this 

 claim. 



The dragonfly possesess the unique 

 faculty among winged creatures, birds 

 or insects, of flying backwards and for- 

 wards and sideways without turning its 

 body. There are very few insects that 

 the swallow, with its marvelous speed 

 and dexterity, cannot catch, but the 

 dragonfly is one them. The dragonfly 

 without any apparent trouble, will keep 

 a few feet ahead of a swallow for half 

 an hour at a stretch, and no matter how 

 swiftly the swallow flies, the dragonfly 

 is never just there when it makes its 

 swoop. This is because the swallow 

 has to turn its body, while the dragon- 

 fly only reverses its wings. 



The investigations of Professor Weis- 

 mann have done more to solve the 

 problem, "How death came into the 

 world" than those of any other living 

 man. It is generally assumed that 

 death is associated with all forms of 

 life, but this is not really the case. 

 The lower forms of life, for example, 

 may be said to have a perpetual exist- 

 ence, and not to be subject to death; 

 for in unicellular reproduction life is 

 practically endless. In the case of 

 higher forms of life death is universal, 

 and for a very natural reason. The 

 aim of nature is the perpetuation of 

 the species, not of the individual, and 

 when creatures have, as in the case of 

 certain insects, reproduced themselves 

 once for all, they have no further need 

 of existence. Creatures that nurse 

 their young, like mammals, and pro- 

 duce them slowly, have need of longer 

 life, or the species would speedily be 



exterminated; but there is no reason 

 why the individual, having performed 

 its duty in relation to the species, 

 should continue to exist, since its ex- 

 istence then becomes a superfluity. 

 Between multicellular and unicellular 

 existence there is, therefore, the marked 

 difference that, whereas the former 

 dies when it has reproduced itself and 

 so perpetuated its species, the latter 

 goes on perpetually reproducing itself 

 — one cell growing out of another 

 without cessation. To Weismann we 

 owe the knowledge of how it is that 

 death intervenes when multicellular 

 existence develops from unicellular. 

 The change is effected by the differen- 

 tiation of the individual — or somatic — 

 and the reproductive cells. The former 

 have lost the power of multiplication 

 and reproduction, and consequently 

 died, while the latter have pre- 

 served it. 



The most curious of all objects in 

 New Zealand is that which the Maoris 

 call "aweto." One is uncertain whether 

 to call it an animal or a plant. In the 

 first stages of its existence it is simply 

 a caterpillar about three or four inches 

 in length, and always found in connec- 

 tion with the rata tree, a kind of flower- 

 ing myrtle. It appears that when it 

 reaches full growth it buries itself two 

 or three inches under ground, where, 

 instead of undergoing the ordinary 

 chrysalis process, it becomes gradually 

 transformed into a plant, which ex- 

 actly fills the body, and shoots up at 

 the neck to a height of eight or ten 

 inches. This plant resembles in ap- 

 pearance a diminutive bulrush; and 

 the two, animal and plant, are always 

 found inseparable. One is apt to rele- 

 gate it to the domain of imagination, 

 among dragons and mermaids; but then 

 its existence and nature have been ac- 

 cepted by the late Frank Buckland. 

 How it propagates its species is a 

 mystery. One traveler, after describ- 

 ing its dual nature, calmly states that 

 it is the grub of the night butterfly. 

 If so, then the grub must also become 

 a butterfly, or what becomes of the 

 species? One would be ready to sup- 

 pose that the grub does really eo, and 

 that some fungus finds the cast-off 



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