A YO UNG NA TURALIST. 1 1 7 



ing ; but however quickly we raised our hands, we all failed in 

 our efforts. 



An hour was spent in this way, and even then, we should not 

 have given up the chase if the sun had not ceased to shine on 

 the bank, and the insects had therefore moved beyond our 

 reach, so as to be within its influence. Lucien, vexed at their 

 going away, and I'Encuerado, furious at having been conquered 

 by the agile creatures, commenced throwing stones at them with 

 the hope of wounding one. Even in this they did not succeed, 

 so I'Encuerado satisfied himself by calling them fools, a name 

 which, in his opinion, constituted a gross insult. 



About twenty tadpoles, swimming in a puddle of water, were 

 taken by Lucien for fish. 



" They are frog's," I said to him. 



" Where are their feet, then % " 



" Under the brown skin, which makes them look like fish : 

 when the time of their metamorphosis arrives, this skin will split 

 all down their back, and a little frog will come out of it. Look 

 at this tadpole I have just caught ; you can see the feet through 

 its transparent skin. To-day it is a fish, that is to say, it 

 breathes through gills — those little tufts you see on each side of 

 its head — and perhaps to-morrow it will undergo that metamor- 

 phosis which will cause it to breathe through its mouth. The 

 Toltecs, the great nation which preceded the Aztecs in Mexico, 

 counted the frog among their gods." 



When putting the tadpole back into the pool, I noticed some 

 whitish insects, which were incessantly rising in jerks to the 

 surface of the water, and diving down again directly. Lucien, 

 astonished at their movements, cried out — 



" But, papa, they are walking on their backs ! " 



"You are quite right; they are hydrocorises, allied to the 

 tettigones, and consequently hemipterm." 



The young naturalist was more successful than in his gyrin- 

 hunting, and succeeded in catching two or three of these water- 

 bugs. 



" What is the use of their wings 1 " he inquired. 



" Why, to fly with, and to move from place to place." 



