Part 5

They are very short, but it does not need long ones.

Insects smell with their feelers, you know, but our dragon 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 antennae 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.