Chap. VII.] DAY IN THE JUNGLE. 253 



assigns to morning, noon, and twilight tlieir peculiar 

 symbols. 



With the first ghmmering of dawn the bats and nocturnal 

 birds retire to their accustomed haunts, in wliich to hide 

 them from " day's garish eye ; " the jackal and tlie 

 leopard steal back from their nightly chase ; the elephants 

 return timidly into the shade of the forest, from the 

 water pools in which they had been luxuriating during 

 the darkness ; and the deep-toned bark of the elk re- 

 sounds through the glens as he retires into the security 

 of the forest. Day breaks, and its earhest blush shows 

 the mists tumbling in turbulent heaps through the 

 deep valleys. The sun bursts upwards with a speed 

 beyond that which marks his progress in the cloudy 

 atmosphere of Europe, and the whole horizon glows with 

 ruddy lustre : 



" Not, as in northern climes, obscurely bright, 

 But one unclouded blaze of living- light." 



At no other moment does the verdure of the mountain 

 w^oods appear so vivid ; eacli spray dripping with co[)ious 

 dew, and a pendant brilliant twinkhng at every leaf ; the 

 grassy glade is hoar with the condensed damps of night, 

 and the threads of the gossamer sparlde like strings of 

 opal in the sunbeams. 



The earliest members of the animated world that catch 

 the eye as they move abroad, are the Uesperidce ; the 

 first butterflies, that, with abrupt gesture, pay their 

 morning visit to the flowers. To them succeed the 

 Theclce, distinguished by the blue metallic lustre of their 

 wings ; and the Polyomniati, the minutest and most deli- 

 cate of the diurnal lepidoptera. The other species make 

 their appearances with imerring certainty at successive 

 stages of the morning ; the Theclce are followed by tlie 

 Vanessce^ and these by the gaudy Papilios, till, as day 

 advances, the broad-leaved plants and flowering shrubs 

 are covered by a dancing cloud of butterflies of every 

 shape and hue. The bees luuTy abroad in all directions. 



