IN FEATHERS AND FUR. 203 
he gets entirely out — leaving his old skin hanging on to the weed — 
he begins to unfold his wings, for you know they were packed into 
a very small place. He takes long breaths, and shakes out fold 
after fold in the wings, till at last they are fully spread out, the 
beautiful great gauzy things that you have seen ; and the perfect 
Dragon Fly darts off into the air for something to eat. For in spite 
of all his changes, he has not lost his dreadful appetite. He needs 
no mask now, for he can dart about as fast as any creature, and 
flies, spiders, and centipedes, and anything else that he can catch, 
make food for him. 
Mr. Wood says that if you hold a Dragon Fly by his wings — 
and do not hurt him — he will eat almost any number of insects you 
can give him, and when you let him go he w T ill fly off after more, 
as hungry as though he had been starved. 
You have seen for yourself, no doubt, the beautiful colors in 
which this little creature is dressed ; the rich blue, deep green, and 
bright red, and above all, the splendid great clusters of eyes on the 
head, and the delicate gauzy wings which carry him so rapidly 
backward as well as forward, through the air. 
In the Malay Islands, this beautiful creature is hunted for the 
table ! It would not be easy for you to catch enough of them to eat, 
but it is very easily done by boys in those Islands. They provide 
themselves with small branches, strip cff the leaves, leaving a few 
twigs at the end. These they cover with bird lime — the very stick- 
iest stuff you ever saw — and start out on the river banks, where 
Dragon Flies are thick. They only need to move their sticks about 
in the air, for every unhappy fly which they touch, is instantly 
caught. The boys pick them of? the sticks, pull off their wings, 
and drop them helpless into a basket. When they have enough, 
they go home, and the unfortunate Dragon Flies are fried in oil 
with onions, and end their career on the supper table. 
It is no more than fair, to be sure, that creatures who have 
spent their lives in eating other live insects, should at last them- 
selves be eaten, but I don't want to punish them for their greedi- 
ness in that way, do you ? 
One of the Dragon Flies is so pretty and graceful that it is 
called the Demoiselle Dragon Fly. Of this family the ladies dress 
in delicate green throughout, while the gentlemen on the contrary 
prefer a dark blue, spotted with black. 
