140 
THE SUBSTITUTE. 
make it taste the sweeter, — a 
phinp:e down into the deep water, 
snapping up a larva here, a small 
beetle there, with a little crusta. 
cean or two between, or perhaps 
occasionally dropping down upon 
a struggling tadpole or young 
stickleback that has strayed rather 
too soon from under the paternal 
eye, his own bulk and strong ar- 
mour rendering him all the while 
perfectly indifferent as to the view 
the other inhabitants of his little 
world may take of his proceedings. 
And to make sure of the continu- 
ance of this state of felicity, to 
avoid all chance of our friend 
finding himself some fine morn- 
ing floundering about in the 
mud, with a disagreeably hot 
sun aggravating the necessary 
hardship of his being deprived of 
his bath. Nature has kindly pro- 
vided him with a pair of ample 
wings, upon which he can start off 
at any time to seek his fortune 
in another place. He generally 
selects the night for these migra- 
tions, and is indeed exceedingly 
partial to nocturnal excursions in 
the regions of the air, though for 
what particular purpose it is im- 
possible to say, unless, as we often 
observe to be the case in a higher 
animal, the great ease of his cir- 
cumstances begets a habit of 
raking. Certain it is that our 
friend the Di/ticus is a most in- 
veterate rake, and his fondness for 
nocturnal expeditions frequently, 
brings him into trouble ; he ap- 
pears to have an insuperable ob- 
jection to being seen on the wing, 
and therefore, as soon as the day 
begins to break, plunges into the 
first water he sees, a practice which 
readily accounts for his being ofien 
found in water-butts, or even in 
the still more ignominious durance 
of a puddle. Occasionally also he 
has been known to mistake the 
glass of a green-house for water, 
and by dashing heedless down 
upon it commit an involuntary 
suicide. 
“ The larva of Dyiicus is as 
voracious as the perfect insect, 
but here all resemblance between 
them ceases. The beetle, as may 
be gathered from the description 
given above, is a stout, portly- 
looking insect, the moderate con- 
vexity of his back reminding one of 
the gentle swell observable in the 
waistcoat of a well-to-do middle- 
aged gentleman who has dis- 
covered the summum bontim of hu- 
man existence to consist in a good 
dinner; but the larva, although 
his actions w’ould seem to indicate 
his adoption of this view of affairs, 
certainly does very little credit to 
his good living. On the contrary, 
he is a slender, wriggling worm, 
with a most villanously hungry 
aspect, thickest about the middle, 
and tapering off nearly to a point 
at the tail, and his head is armed 
with a pair of long sickle-shaped 
jaws of a most formidable appear- 
ance. The upper surface of the 
segments, especially the anterior 
ones, is horny ; the three first seg- 
ments of the body are furnished 
with jointed legs ; and the general 
colour of the creature is a pale 
dingy brown. The structure of 
the mandibles is peculiar; they 
are acute and hollow, and exhibit 
a small slit close to the tip. The 
larva, on capturing his prey, 
which consists principally of other 
aquatic larvae, buries his fonnid- 
able jaws in their bodies, and thus 
sucks out their juices with very 
little trouble.” — pp. 75 — 78. 
