A BAND OF PIRATES 
235 
enabling them to feast gluttonously on the juices 
of soft-bodied water creatures. The females 
cover their eggs with a cocoon of hardened jelly- 
like stuff. This cocoon has an inner and an outer 
case, and is attached to a curiously shaped floater. 
The larvee are the bloodthirstiest little pirates im¬ 
aginable, eating insects and snails, and when 
these are scarce, preying upon each other. They 
pass their pupal stage in the ground. 
“ The whirligig beetles which I mentioned are 
close kin to the water beetles, being small oval 
forms whose lives are certainly one mad whirl. 
They can dive in pursuit of their prey, if need be, 
but as a rule their lives are spent circling dizzily 
on the surface of the water. Some three hun¬ 
dred and fifty species have been catalogued, but 
only forty of these are known in our waters. 
Like the water beetles, they have sharp mandibles 
and an unappeased appetite.” 
“ What about the water boatmen, I think you 
called them? ” queried Alice. “Are they beetles, 
too?” 
“No, they are mottled, oval-shaped bugs, and 
decidedly queer specimens, being one of the few 
aquatic musical performers, playing a smart tune 
on their snout with their fore legs. Their hind 
legs are oar-shaped, and they swim rapidly, being 
able to chase their prey above or below the sur¬ 
face, as they cany down with them a film of air 
