276 REMARKS ON THE 



windows, except on evenings when ther^ was much moonlight, 

 for then it was useless, and then I loved to sit in the piazza 

 and look out over the broad calm river, to listen to the hoarse 

 roar of the alligators, the loud drumming of the drum-fish, 

 the croaking of the frogs, the loud plaint of the whip-poor- 

 will, or the music of the mocking-bird. Beautiful, most beau- 

 tiful were those calm clear nights, when the moon, almost 

 vertical, hung like a silver globe beneath the dark blue sky, 

 which, studded with a few bright stars, seemed to lie far be- 

 yond her. To me these evenings seemed to tell more clearly 

 than the days that I was far from home ; whatever sound we 

 heard, whether it was the plaint of the whip-poor-will, or the 

 alligator's roar, or whether it was the gay songs of the ne- 

 groes as they paddled by in their canoes : whatever object 

 the moon revealed to us, all was unlike to what we could see 

 and hear in our native land, and over everything visible was 

 poured forth a flood of light so beautiful, — but words cannot 

 describe it, and I am digressing, and must " try back," as the 

 Florida phrase is. 



It was during the period I have now been speaking of, that 

 my evening and nocturnal labours were most successful ; in 

 the early part of the time in Lepidoptera, later, in Coleoptera. 

 The latter sometimes came in great numbers, and on those 

 nights the Lepidoptera all stayed away. I might try to lure 

 them from the woods, but they would not come when I called 

 them. The Coleoptera which chiefly came, were one or two 

 Lehiae, Omophron Lecontei, Panag(Bus fasciatus, one or two 

 Anchomeni, Harpalus hicolor, various Selenophori, Melo- 

 lonthce hirticula, varians,frondicola, Say, and other species. 

 Cyclocephala immaculata, Serica sericea, and other of their 

 allies, a few Elateridce, Enoplium marginatum, Say, and one 

 or two other species : various Telephori, Euparius luguhris, 

 lunatus and coronatus, Monohammus dentator, Cerasphorus 

 garganicus, Elaphidion mucronatum and putator, Lamia Al- 

 pha, Acanthocinus ohsoletus and other longicoms, amongst 

 which were some interesting new species. Occasionally, too, 

 a host of CicindelcB would pay me a visit, a circumstance I 

 was at a loss to account for, until I found that they were all 

 labouring under hydrophobia, brought on by the passing of 

 a steam-boat, or the rise of the tide. De Coleopterls satis 

 dictum est. 



Orthoptera and Neuroptera, too, were getting pretty nume- 

 rous ; for the fonner, however, the autumn is the best season. 

 The curious genus Mantispa appeared in April and May, 

 when Man. hrunnea was not unfrequently to be found on the 

 bushes of Baccharis and Lycium, near the shore. A few 



