ness of the Conqueror. After this larva had been buried nineteen days I again dug down to see how he was getting along. He had split a hole in the skin of his back, and four or five white segments of his body bulged out of the rent. He wriggled,

and I again withdrew.

Will it be believed that not a single larva arose as a beetle? There was at first a slight doubt in the case of the larva of Yeast-Powder-Lid Lake, for I found his empty husk, but I know now that its emptiness was due, not to a secret resurrection, but to the ants. After all my labors in digging earth-worms and in going after polliwogs, this was my reward.

The following are the names of the unresurrected dead and of those that died before burying themselves:

1. Conqueror of Coffee-Pot-Lid Lake. 2. Conqueror II.

4. Larva of Yeast-Powder-Lid Lake.

5. Scarer of Soap-Dish-Lid Lake.

6. Triumpher of Tin-Pan Lake.

7.

Monarch of Mortar Lake.

8. "The Last."

List of those that "played hookey"

1. Oliver.

2. Frightener of Flower-Pot Lake. 3. "The Last-But-One."

Numbers of other larvæ of no names perished in their infancy. The Monarch of Mortar Lake, however, deserves honorable mention. I am almost certain that, if the Sexton of the Graveyard of Beetles had left the Monarch alone, he would have come out as a beetle. But said Sexton was too officious, and to that may be ascribed the Monarch's death. I am sure his intentions were all right. He was the only one of all the larvæ that managed, after forming a round cell, to pull off his skin and become a pupa.

The Monarch had left the watery for the earthy element on the 7th of May. The 8th of June an unlucky fit of curiosity seized me and I explored the depths to see what had become of him. I found that he had made a good-sized round hole as big as a small potato. Inside the cell was the old skin overcoat that the Monarch had worn as a larva. Outside, below the cell, having evidently tumbled out through my fault, was the Monarch himself, but so changed that one would hardly have known him, for he was very much fatter than he had been as a larva, and was now a big, white pupa, with legs folded on his breast, and dull, black eyes showing under the white. He looked as if he were made of condensed milk. After this the Monarch turned dark, but the poor fellow never came out, for the Sexton had been his murderer.

The next time that I undertake to raise

Water-tigers will probably be when I can afford to hire a small boy to bring me a small pailful of black toad-polliwogs daily.

I have read that in 1258 the commons of Castile bluntly required the king "to bring his appetite within a more reasonable compass." And the king meekly assented to the proposition. But what is a king compared with a Water-tiger? . The former might agree to being deprived of anything he wanted to eat, but the latter would rebel. Pliny tells of men living on the smell of the river Ganges. But though the odor arising from some of the pools in which Water-tigers live is quite perceptible at times, yet the creatures hardly seem to thrive on that alone. For Water-tigers are not candidates for Nirvana, and therefore do not subsist on "insipid food," as those worthies were expected to. Like the Macdonalds of Glencoe, the Tigers have, indeed, "been guilty of many black murthers." But then, one can hardly expect the Water-tigers to practise such abstinence

as the Druids were wont to use when they, in order to accustom themselves to curbing their appetites, would have a banquet prepared, and would survey the feast for some time: Then, their firmness having been sufficiently tried, they all withdrew without having eaten a morsel. Watertigers never would think of such abstinence, and you shall find in their homes as many relics of dead and gone beings as the churches of Europe contained in the days when Geneva showed a piece of pumice as the brain of the apostle Peter, and a bone of a deer as the arm of St. Anthony, and when other places contained the hair of the Virgin, the tooth of John the Baptist, the shoulder-blade of Simeon, and a lip of one of the Inno

cents.

Perhaps, for the benefit of those who might wish to go dredging themselves, I should describe the implement with which I catch water-creatures. There is no need of spending a cent on apparatus for catching such insects. My dredger is of my own manufacture and consists of a strong, round, iron hoop that was probably once on a keg or something of the sort. To this hoop I have fastened a strainer consisting of a piece of an old calico apron. Occasionally the calico tears, but it is easily mended and is better than mosquito-bar because that will be likely to let small larvæ escape through the meshes. The handle of the dredger is an old round stick about a yard long. I think

it was once part of a wooden clothes-horse. One

end of the stick being

split admits the iron

hoop, and the two are firmly bound together by strips of stout cotton cloth.

Armed with such an implement as this, one can sweep under the water-weeds and be victorious. But use old calico or something thin for the strainer, or your patience may be exhausted while you wait for the water to run out so that you can see your captives. Glass fruit-jars or old jelly-glasses make fine homes for beetles and bugs that do not need to come out on dry land at times. A stick or bunch of

grass is all the rest

Home-made Dredger.

ing-place needed by such insects.

The finest and cheapest receptacles that I have