192 



UNDER THE OPEN SKY 



to be very fugitive and to dim soon after his 

 death. 



This fellow haunts the water because there 

 he best finds his food. It has been seri- 

 ously proposed to cultivate him for his great 

 fondness for mosquitoes. In connection 

 with this his one good name was suggested. 

 It was proposed to call him a "mosquito 

 hawk," but the name never "took." 



Then too the dragon-fly lays her eggs in 

 the water and this brings her to our ponds. 

 Here she hovers over the surface, her long 

 tail bent down. Every few seconds at such 

 a time, she dips the tip of the tail under the 

 surface and deposits an egg, which sinks to 

 the bottom and adheres to the stones. Here 

 it develops into its baby stage. Often when 

 you have lifted a stone from the bed of a 

 stream a black, flat animal has scurried to 

 the underside of the stone. This was prob- 

 ably a young dragon-fly. This water-in- 

 habiting and quite unlovely-looking animal 

 .. will stay here until next summer. Then it 

 jg||*7 will climb up the stem of a cat-tail or sedge, 

 ' '' clinch its toes so as to hook firmly to the 



