] 6 TIMES AND SEASONS. 



eiitliusiasm with which I saw him suddenly throw out 

 from his face that extraordinary mask that Kirby has so 

 grai^hically described, and, seizing the worm with the 

 serrated folding-doors, close the whole apparatus up again 

 in a moment. I could not stand that: in goes the net ; the 

 clearness is destroyed ; the vermin fly hither and thither ; 

 and our sprawling ill-favoured gentleman is dragged to 

 daylight, and clapped into the pocket-phial, to be fattened 

 at home, and reared " for the benefit of science." 



Since then I have wooed fair nature in many lands, 

 and have always found a peculiar charm in the early 

 morning. When dwelling in the gorgeous and sunny 

 Jamaica, it was delightful to rise long before day and ride 

 up to a lonely mountain gorge overhung by the solemn 

 tropical forest, and there, amidst the dewy ferns arching 

 their feathery fronds by thousands from every rock and 

 fallen tree, and beneath the splendid wild-pines and orchids 

 that droop from every fork, await the first activity of some 

 crepuscular bird or insect. There was a particular species 

 of butterfly, remarkable for the extraordinary gem-like 

 splendour of its decoration, and peculiarly interesting to the 

 philosophic naturalist as being a connecting link between 

 the true butterflies and the moths. This lovely creature, I 

 discovered, was in the habit of appearing just as the sun 

 broke from the sea, and congregating by scores around 

 the summit of one tall forest-tree then in blossom, filling 

 the air with tlieir lustrous and sparkling beauty, at a height 

 most tantalising for the collector, and after playing in giddy 

 fliglit for about an hour, retiring as suddenly as they came. 



