COLEOPTEROUS INSECTS. 165 



Their gorgeous colours from the eye of day ; 

 Now motionless and dark, eluded search, 

 Self-shrouded ; and anon, starring the sky, 

 Rose like a shower of fire.* 



An appearance alike remarkable for its singularity 

 and beauty, is well fitted to afford imagery to the 

 poetry and figurative oratory of the natives of the 

 countries where it prevails ; and if a learned Greek 

 could suppose the hum of an obscure beetle to be 

 the voice of the gods speaking to mankind, f it need 

 less excite our wonder that some savage nations, 

 unacquainted with the causes of natural phenome- 

 na, and so prone to consider " holy light" as a di- 

 vine effulgence, should have regarded even the more 

 obscure manifestations of a supposed celestial princi- 

 ple with superstitious veneration, and imagined these 

 illuminated beings to be the appointed vehicles for 

 conveying the souls of the departed to their final 

 resting place. 



The following extract contains an account of the 

 introduction of a few fire-flies into Britain : — " Mr 

 Lees having been struck with the beauty of the 

 fire-fly on his arrival in the West Indies, and be- 

 coming desirous to keep them alive, made several 

 attempts during his residence at the Bahamas ; but 



* Southey's Madoc. 



•(■ Dum volant, tanto stridore vel murmure et gemitu 

 potius aerem replent, ut per eos Deorum cum hominibus 

 fieri colloquia Laertius scriberet — Mouf. Thcat. 134. 



