Insects 365 



wet wings fairly spread. If by chance the 

 water roughens at that exact moment there 

 is an end of one particular musquito. Mus- 

 quitoes may be semi-immortal, but they are 

 not even demi-semi-aquatic, after they get 

 their wings. 



Now, Mrs. Snake-doctor — Princess Drag- 

 onfly, just which you please — also lays her 

 eggs either in water or hard by it, upon 

 herbage likely to sink into the pool. The 

 eggs hatch under water into fierce and lively 

 wrigglers, which prey upon wiggle-tails and 

 much else, moult several times, and end by 

 changing to a nymph, from which in the end 

 the perfect dragonfly comes out. 



There are all sorts and conditions of 

 dragonflies — more than a lazy person would 

 like to count. White Oaks dragonflies were 

 of two sorts — in color either iridescent 

 blackish-green, or still more iridescent black- 

 ish-brown. They had long, round, slender 

 bodies swelling lumpishly where the wings 

 were set on, stout heads, and voracious 

 mouths. The wings were their chief beauty 

 — two on each side, gauzy, glittering, three 

 parts as long as your finger, and full of lace- 

 like veinings richly dark. For all the wings 

 are so gauzy-glittering they are incredibly 

 strong in flight. They bear the snake-doctor, 

 almost with the speed of a bullet, far and 



