14 NATURE IN ACADIE. 



Another much larger species of " dragonfly " ( " devil's 

 darning-needles " they are called here, as in some 

 parts of England) was also not uncommon along the 

 sides of the lakes. It has the characteristics of JEshna 

 and is nearly three inches in length and four inches 

 across the extended wings, which latter are perfectly 

 transparent ; the slender cylindrical abdomen is blackish 

 with several transverse markings of a pale blue, and 

 with two stripes of yellow upon each side of the thorax. 

 The flight of this insect is remarkably swift, and when 

 struck at with the net and missed it darts off with such 

 velocity that the eye can scarcely follow it. Sometimes 

 it comes gliding down the rocky gorge or sweeping 

 across the lake with a gentle movement of its wings, 

 and then, suddenly darting upward, it snaps up a fly 

 with an audible click of its jaws and glides on again in 

 search of fresh prey. 



Among the rocks and boulders on sunny slopes I 

 found several marbled locusts (Locusta marmorata). 

 When settled this insect presents a dusky appearance, 

 the upper wings being mottled with dusky brown, but 

 the lower wings are pale yellow, with a darkish outer 

 margin, and are very noticeable in flight. When flying 

 this insect produces a loud and peculiar "clicking" 

 sound ; it flies in an irregular manner and usually but 

 a short distance, settling on the bare surface of one 

 of the boulders, with which its mottled appearance 

 when at rest somewhat harmonizes ; if disturbed it 

 leaps some distance like a grasshopper. The latter 

 insects also abounded and I obtained specimens of two 

 or three species. 



In a little swamp I obtained a wasps' nest of a kind 

 that is somewhat common in these parts. This speci- 

 men was at a height of about five feet above the swamp, 

 and was fixed to a spray in the upper part of a bush, 

 the twig passing through one side of the globe, and the 

 small shoots and leaves being also carefully worked 

 into the wall of the nest. It was about five inches in 

 diameter and almost globular, the outer wall being 

 composed of several distinct and separate layers or 



