392 FOOD OF INSECTS. 



couch until their more vulgar brethren have retired to 

 rest. While the painted butterfly, the " fervent bees," 

 and the quivering nations of flies, which sport 



" Thick in yon atream of light, a thousand ways. 

 Upward and downward thwarting and convolved," 



love to bask in the sun's brightest rays, and search for 

 their food amidst his noontide fervor, an immense mul- 

 titude stir not before the sober time of twilight, and eat 

 only when night has overshadowed the earth. Then 

 only, the vast tribe of moths quit their hiding-places ; 

 " the shard-born "beetle with his drowsy hum," accom- 

 panied by numerous others of his order, sallies forth ; 

 the airy Tipulae institute their dances ; and the solitary 

 spider stretches his net. All these retire into conceal- 

 ment at the approach of light. — Some few larvae (Noc- 

 tiia exclamationls, &c.) have similar habits, and those 

 of one singular genus before adverted to (Nj/cterobius) 

 are remarkable for providing in the night a store of 



^ In the controversy between the commentators on Shakespeare, as fo 

 whether sJiard * means wing-cases, dung, or a fragment of earthenware, 

 and whether born should he spelled with or without the e, it might have 

 thrown sbme Mcight into the scale of those who contend for the ortho- 

 graphy adopted above, and that the meaning of s/iard in this place is 

 dung, if they had been aware that the beetle {ScarabcEus stercorarius) 

 is actually 6orK amongst dung, and no where else; and tliat no beetle 

 which makes a hum in flying can with propriety be said, as Ur. Johnson 

 has interpreted the epithet in his Dictionary, " to be born amongst 

 broken stones ov pots," That Shakespeare alluded to the Beetle, and 

 not to the Cockchafer {Melolontha vulgaris), seems clear from the fact 

 of the former being to be heard in all places almost every fine evening 

 in the summer, while the latter is common oidy in particular districts, 

 and at one period of the year. S. 



* Sham is the common name of cow-dung in the North; therefore 

 Shakespeare probably wrote s7;«rn-born, Mr. Mac Leay. 



