"Hitherto I have considered these creatures only in their infant or incomplete states; wherein the faculties and powers they are endued with, are entirely different from those of their perfect and complete ones. In the former I have described them swimming and grovelling about in the water, preying upon the lesser kinds of insects, being incapable of subsisting for any length of time out of that element; in the latter we must view them capable of flying in the open air, and conveying themselves from place to place. If they are then confined to the limits of a small pond, they are now capable of roving from tree to tree, and from field to field, darting and skimming along with all the rapidity and seeming joy, that a being sensible of, and exulting in its own powers, can be supposed to do; in short, we {112}must now view them in shapes so distinct and different from their former ones, that they hardly seem to bear any relation to each other, except in their nature and appetites; for although they appear in a far more elegant dress than when in their caterpillar states, yet these are just the same, the same voracious inclinations subsisting now as formerly; hunting after, and preying upon, the lesser genera, with the same eagerness and desire as they did when inhabitants of the water. Incredible numbers of small moths, bees, flies with four and two wings, are the daily sacrifices offered to the insatiable appetites of these hungry gluttons; and where they devoured one insect in the water they now destroy a hundred, if the mildness of the season will permit them to range about in quest of them. In rainy weather they seldom or ever move, nor when the wind is very strong and boisterous. Indeed, it is not to be wondered at. The small insects, who are their proper food, being by the same reasons prevented from being abroad, consequently are an impediment to those motives, that so strongly induce the Libellas to fly about. During such inclement times they generally shelter themselves from the wind, &c. being suspended by their feet in a perpendicular position on some twig, that is remote and separate from any boughs, waiting in that manner, without motion, for better weather and sunshine. "I am strongly inclined to believe, that the greater part, if not all the Libellas, are two years in passing from the egg to the complete animal. But as this is a circumstance I do not remember to have seen in any author, I shall not attempt to establish my opinion as an absolute truth. I shall mention my reasons for this belief, and leave it to every person either to confirm or confute it, as his observations shall hereafter give him an opportunity.