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 

 wriggler^, which prey upon wiggle-tails and 

 much else, inoult 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. 



