CHAPTER VI 
DRAGON-FLIES AND DAM¬ 
SEL-FLIES (Order Odonata) 
HEN it is high noon on the mill-pond,— 
when leaves droop, and sun glares upon the 
water, and the air is hot and still, when 
other creatures seek the shade, and even 
the swallows that skim the air morning 
and evening are resting,—then those other 
swallows of the insect world, the dragon¬ 
flies, are all abroad. . . . One may stand 
by the side of a small pond, and follow 
for hours with his eye the evolutions of one of the large dragon-flies skim- . 
ming over the surface in zigzag lines or sweeping curves, stopping still 
in midair, and starting again, seeming never to rest, nor even to tire. Poised 
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