flies see so well they do not need to smell very well, I suppose.
See how it can turn its head around. That is because it has a little short neck between its head and its body.
Its eyes, its mouth, and its antennæ belong to its head.
Of course our demoiselle can fly well; one need only look at those wings to know that.
To fly well is quite as necessary to one of its habits as to see well.
What would be the use of seeing an insect if it could not fly fast enough to catch it?
We all like your pretty wings, little dragon fly; they look like glass and they shine so in the sun.
How fast the wings can move! See that dragon fly skimming over the pond; its wings make a whizzing sound as it darts about.
Why does it zigzag so?
Why doesn't it fly in a straight line?
Yes, Mollie, you are right, it goes zigzagging along after insects.
It sees one it wants off at one side—whizz! around it turns after it.
Shouldn't you like to fly like that, children?
And yet we would not be willing to exchange our arms and hands for wings.
We could not whittle a stick nor write a letter if we had only wings.
In fact we could not do most of the things we now do.
I am glad I have my hands.
We are glad, too, that the dragon flies have their pretty, swift wings.
They have four wings, all nearly the same size and shape, you see, and they are all stiff and shining.
Some dragon flies, like this one we have picked up, always keep their wings spread out.
But over there, standing on the end of that stick, is another kind.
When it rests its wings are folded together.
What a pretty one it is! Do you see it?
It is small, but so pretty.
It is bright blue and shines as though it had been polished.
Sometimes birds catch these smaller dragon flies, though birds, as a rule, are not fond of any of them.
They are so hard and their wings are so stiff I should think a bird might almost as well swallow nails.
I am sure no bird could swallow one of the big ones, wings and all!
But frogs can.
A frog will try to swallow almost anything it can catch, and it watches for the dragon flies when they come to lay their eggs in the water.
Suddenly it jumps out, and away goes poor dragon fly into that great wide frog-mouth.
Now look at the legs of the dragon fly. It has six.
Every dragon fly has six legs.
They are rather short and small for so large an insect, but that is because it does not need large, strong legs.
You never saw a dragon fly dig a hole, or run, or even walk, did you?
Their legs are not arranged for walking. All six of them are directed forwards as though they were reaching out after something. And so they are—reaching out after insects.
Dragon fly catches his prey while he is flying, and he grasps the insects with his feet.
He snatches one, and then what?
Does he sit down somewhere and eat it?
Not he, he is far too hungry for that; he continues his swift flight, and as he flies he eats.
As soon as he has finished one fly or gnat, zip! he snatches another.
He has an insatiable appetite, consuming hundreds of insects in the course of a day. Nor does he confine his attention to flies and gnats and mosquitoes and such small fry. He catches what he can. A large dragon fly will even gorge himself on one of the large-sized butterflies, and one has been seen calmly chewing away at an enormous wasp!
No, indeed, Mabel, the dragon fly does not eat the wings of the butterfly, it eats only the soft body.
Probably nothing eats a butterfly, wings and all. Birds and insects sometimes catch butterflies, and you often see the bright wings lying on the ground. The wings of insects are not worth eating, and are almost always cast aside by the creatures that eat the insects.
Besides catching insects with their legs, the dragon flies cling fast to things with them, but when they wish to move they do not walk, they fly.
Yes, indeed, Frank, you are right; their legs are jointed.
That is so they can move them easily and fold them up when they want to.
They would find it as hard to get along without joints to their legs as we should.
Wouldn't we be stiff if we had no joints!
See, the legs and wings are fastened to the middle part of the body, the thorax, we call it.
All insects have the legs and wings attached to the thorax.
The rest of the body is the abdomen. See how long it is.
It is the long abdomen that gives the dragon fly its name of spindle, I suppose.
The abdomen is jointed, and it can curl up.
All grown-up insects have a head, a thorax, and a jointed abdomen.
What are you looking at, Charlie?
Something moving in the bottom of the pond?
Let us get it out.
Here, we will dip it out with this cup.
What a lot of stuff!
Sticks and mud—and—what is that?
Something alive, surely.
Let us put some clean water in the cup and examine what we have found.
My!
