COUNTRY LIFE
A VERY good observer of objects of natural history spending a day in London stopped for a moment as she came out of Bond Street into Oxford Street. Before her astonished eyes a large yellow dragon-fly flew slowly to and fro, as if uncertain which way to turn. This was in the last week of October and is no isolated example of the appearance of this unexpected denizen of central London. A week or so earlier the appearance of several other dragon-flies in equally surprising places had been recorded, for example, in The Times. I suppose that the extra amount of still water provided by pools in bombed sites has proved a breeding-ground; but these voracious flies must have come from eggs laid there by flies that must have flown in from considerable distances. London naturalists ought to search these waters to discover the grubs that have bred in them. London becomes in many ways a happy hunting-ground for naturalists, whether their interests are botanical, ornithological or, it now seems, entomological. Among the places especially glorious with wild flowers were Buckingham Palace Gardens, at one time purple with rose- bay. It is not altogether unlikely that the lake there is a breeding-ground for dragon-fly.
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