214 PERFORMING FLEAS. 



In magnitude, as well as brilliancy of colour, the tropic 

 bugs, as well as tropic butterflies, confessedly excel our own ; 

 but for the blue bug of China we have one scarcely less 

 beautiful, the blue bug of England,* which flies in the July 

 sunshine, or is found resting upon heath or trees.f 



There is one distinctive trait of the Bug-family which pre- 

 vails, we believe, almost as universally amongst its out-door 

 members as in its domestic branch. However the former m;i\ 

 appear to the eye as if invested with a portion of the grace 

 and beauty of the plants on which we find them, there is 

 another organ of perception to which it may possibly become 

 evident that they have not, with its elegance, borrowed also the 

 blossom's sweetness. If their frequently sculptured wing-cases 

 were inscribed, like those of some other insects, with legible 

 characters, " Noli me tangere '' is the warning motto they 

 should bear. 



Now, for a word or two about that sanguinary little monster, 

 the Flea, which, like other sanguinary monsters of a larger 

 growth, has been, perhaps, of all insects the most distinguished. 



Stands it not recorded in history how that an individual 

 flea was once honoured by a cannon-shot from a female 

 roval hand, that of the celebrated Queen Christina? and is 



V 



not the brass piece of Lilliputian ordnance used on that 



* Pentatoma carulea. 



f The flying bugs of Hindostan, resembling our own domestic species in 

 shape, size, and scent, are described by Bishop Heber as coming out in nightly 

 swarms from every bush, entering the windows and crowding round the candles. 



