CHAPTER 2. THE DRAGON-FLY AND HIS COMPANIONS 第2章ドラゴンフライとその仲間たち CAPÍTULO 2. A MOSCA-DRAGÃO E OS SEUS COMPANHEIROS 2. BÖLÜM EJDERHA SİNEĞİ VE YOLDAŞLARI

EVERY country boy or girl, who wants to learn about water animals, should make a pond net. КАЖДЫЙ деревенский мальчик или девочка, желающие узнать о водных животных, должны сделать сачок для пруда. Su hayvanları hakkında bilgi edinmek isteyen HER köylü erkek ya da kız çocuğu bir gölet ağı yapmalıdır. You have only to get a willow twig, and bind it into a hoop with string. Tek yapmanız gereken bir söğüt dalı almak ve onu iple bir çemberin içine bağlamak. Then make a muslin bag and sew a small stone in the bottom of it, and sew the mouth of the bag onto the hoop. Затем сделайте муслиновый мешочек и пришейте к его дну небольшой камень, а горловину мешочка пришейте к обручу. Daha sonra bir muslin torba yapın ve altına küçük bir taş dikin ve torbanın ağzını kasnağa dikin. Get a stick out of the hedge and fasten to it a long piece of string. Çitten bir sopa alın ve ona uzun bir ip parçası bağlayın. Split the string near the end, and tie it to the two sides of the hoop. İpi ucuna yakın bir yerden ayırın ve kasnağın iki yanına bağlayın. Then you have a net which you can let down and fish up animals from the bottom of the pond. You had better have a wide-mouthed bottle as well in which you can put what you catch. Вам также лучше иметь бутылку с широким горлышком, в которую вы можете положить то, что поймаете. I know a shady pond just outside a farm yard at the turn of a lane. There on a bright sunny day the insects are often very busy. Parlak güneşli bir günde böcekler genellikle çok meşguldür.

In one corner of the pond the little whirligig beetles are swimming round and round, making circles in the water. Göletin bir köşesinde küçük fırıldak böcekleri suyun içinde daireler çizerek döne döne yüzüyorlar. Their shining black backs look almost green in the sun. Parlayan siyah sırtları güneşte neredeyse yeşil görünür. Every now and then one jumps up to catch a fly in the air, or another dives down to eat a grub. Drop your net into the water and bring it up quickly under a beetle, and put him in the bottle so that you can see him. Ağınızı suya bırakın ve hızlıca bir böceğin altına getirin ve onu görebileceğiniz şekilde şişeye koyun.

You will think that he has four eyes, for each of his two eyes is divided. Onun dört gözü olduğunu düşüneceksiniz, çünkü iki gözünün her biri bölünmüştür. One half looks up into the air, and one half looks down into the water. So as he whirls about, he can see the flies in the air and the grubs in the water. Böylece dönüp dururken havadaki sinekleri ve sudaki kurtçukları görebiliyor.

Gnats are flitting to and fro over the pond, and there is quite a crowd of those large flies with gauze wings which we call May-flies. Sivrisinekler göletin üzerinde bir o yana bir bu yana uçuşuyor ve Mayıs sineği dediğimiz tül kanatlı büyük sineklerden oluşan bir kalabalık var. And now a more splendid fly, three inches long, with four big gauze wings rises out of the bulrushes and flies over the pond.

All boys know the dragon-fly. His lovely wings are covered with cross-bars filled with air, and they glitter in the sunshine with red, blue, and green colours. He has a long tail and a thick body with six legs, and a round head with huge eyes.

Each eye has more than ten thousand tiny windows in it, so that he can see up and down, right and left, as he darts about, killing the butterflies and moths that come in his way. Then he settles down on a plant or bush by the water-side, and rests till he starts off again across the pond.

If you go often in April to a pond where dragon-flies are, you may perhaps see one begin its life in the air. This is how it happens.

Under the water a large insect crawls up the stem of a plant. He has a body as big as a dragon-fly and has six legs. У него тело размером со стрекозу и шесть ног. But he has a curious dull look in his face, and where his wings should be there are only two short stumps. Но у него странное унылое выражение лица, а там, где должны быть крылья, только два коротких обрубка.

He crawls very slowly up the stem, till he comes out of the water into the air. Then a strange thing happens. The skin of his back cracks, and out creeps a real dragon-fly. Кожа на его спине трескается, и из нее выползает настоящая стрекоза.

First his head, then his body with its six legs and four soft, crumpled wings, and lastly his tail. He cannot fly yet. He stands by his old empty skin, and slowly stretches out his wings to the sun. In a few hours they are long and strong and hard. Через несколько часов они становятся длинными, сильными и твердыми. Then he is ready to fly over the pond and feed. Тогда он готов летать над водоемом и кормиться.

This is how the dragon-fly comes up to the air. You will not find him so easily under the water, but we will try next week with our net. We have seen so much at the top of the pond to-day that we have not had time to dredge in the mud below. Сегодня мы так много видели наверху пруда, что у нас не было времени копаться в грязи внизу.