128 [November, 
quoted in Kirby and Spence’s Introduction, vol. iv, p. 568: “ sed tandem 
“ lacessitus aquas petit, quas sponse cauda longa, me (Réaumur) teste, 
“ sepius flagellat, donec defatigata, et quasi ex frigido calorem concipiens, 
* demum et sensim caudam inflectit, et se reddit amori.” 
But sober truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, says Dr. Hagen, 
in the “ Revue des Odonates,” pp. 344, 345, translating Professor von 
Siebold’s observation from “ Germar’s Zeitschrift fiir die Entomologie,” 
vol. 11, p. 437 :— 
“ Chez la (L.) scotica la ponte est fort curieuse 4 étudier, attendu 
“ que le male seconde la femelle dans cette opération. Aprés l’accou- 
“ plement il ne la quitte pas, et vole toujours en Ja tenant par le collier 
“ jusqu’a ce quwils aient rencontré un lieu convenable dans les eaux stag- 
“nantes; alors il imprime 4a son abdomen le mouvement oscillatoire, 
“ dont il a été question plus haut ” (refers to a note on females only of 
L. depressa and quadrimaculata), “sans quitter la méme place et sa femelle 
“doit suivre ce mouvement que le male exécute de telle sorte, que 
“ chaque fois le bout de abdomen de la femelle trempe dans l’eau, et _ 
“que les ceufs qui ont dépassé la vulve passent soudainement dans 
“élément propre 4 leur métamorphoses. Ayant examiné les places 
“ot les males avaient ainsi dirigé leur femelles, j’y ai trouvé des eufs 
“ en grande partie semés entre les plantes aquatiques.”’ 
As a child of the nineteenth century, it was my duty to try and 
show that we are ahead of the eighteenth ; viz., that “ flagellation” has 
given place to mild domestication, though without emancipation from 
maternal duties. 
A large sheet of brown paper is usually part of my entomological 
outfit, and, in the present instance, its colour was most convenient, 
because it matched well with the clay bottom of the pond. 
Soaking the paper carefully, I spread it out at the bottom, though 
it was a troublesome task to make level ground, as so many reeds, &e., 
were protruding ; but at last the trap was sunk, and again I sought my 
rest on the bank. Down swooped a glittering pair, dancing an aérial 
“pas de deux,” and I feverishly watched their actions, till rushing round 
with unceremonious alacrity, I secured the wary pair; and, having safely 
boxed them alive without hurting them, I did not mind a wet foot, if 
I found an egg on my paper. 
Solitary, almost globular, pale amber-coloured, half millimétre in 
diameter, there it lay, a silent witness that even a Réaumur is apt not to 
mind his own “wise saws.” Oviposition, then, not copulation, is the 
object of the g dragging the 9 along the water, and dipping her at 
nearly regular intervals. The ? thus caught, after laying what was 
