THE 



ENTOMOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



JULY, 1837. 



Art. LI I. — Wanderings and Ponderings of an Insect-Hunter. 



[Continued from p. 203.) 



Chapter XI, 



[The Insect- Hunter taketh a view of Lemster from Eaton-hill.] 



It is sweet, it is very sweet, to stretch one's self at 

 full length on a hill top, in the early summer grass, while 

 Summer is yet little more than Spring, — the brightly-green, 

 quickly-grown, thyme-scented summer grass ! It is sweet, it 

 is very sweet, while thus prostrate, and propping up the phy- 

 siognomy between the hands to gaze forward on the summer 

 earth, or into the summer air ! It is sweet, it is very sweet, 

 to watch the varied and ever-varying insect tribes as they mount 

 to the tips of the individual blades from the more secure hiding- 

 places about the roots and on the ground, — some beaten down 

 by the morning shower, — some making their first pilgrimage 

 after a winter's sleep in the deathlike chrysalis ! It is sweet, it 

 is very sweet, to watch them as they plume their antennas, and 

 stretch out their tiny wings, waiting a moment, as in coy hesi- 

 tation, then essaying, fearfully at first, their newly-acquired 

 powers, rise and float upon the balmy summer air. Mark that 

 black bee, of all vagabonds the happiest, how she revels in the 

 ground-ivy, which appears wherever the grass is more thinly 

 scattered; with what joyous eagerness she hums from bloom 

 to bloom, followed by her attentive mate, so different from 



NO. V. VOL. IV. o E 



