LEAVES FROM AN APRIL JOURNAL. 33 



void algae the water-boatman rows or turns its 

 pearl wing-covers to view and makes attempts at 

 flight. The large lavender-tinted cj^clops, with 

 egg-panniers attached, are seen, while the bivalved 

 cypris toils along in its shell like a miniature argo- 

 naut. I find here a species of aquatic coleoptera, 

 a little ovate beetle, entirely a stranger to me, which 

 I have nowhere seen described in the books. Un- 

 like any of the other beetles noticed, the thorax 

 seems to project over the abdomen, leaving a space 

 or groove between this appendage and the beauti- 

 fully-marked bronzed-and-black wing-covers. In 

 this channel, where it carries its bubble very con- 

 veniently, play the long, slender posterior legs 

 so active in propelling the creature through the 

 water. These beetles are able to remain a long 

 time beneath the surface, and, unlike those of the 

 genus Bysticus, do not swim up and then turn 

 round to obtain their supply of air, but simply let 

 go the objects to which they cling, and, without 

 using their paddles, rise, tail first, remaining an 

 instant only to perform that wonderful operation, 

 and then scamper down again to feed on the decay- 

 ing matter at the bottom of the pond. 



The toads have rolled themselves out of their 

 mud blankets, and begun their Easter festival and 



