A WALK THROUGH AN ENGLISH LANE. 113 



his eyes, scratching his nose, and breaking up his train 

 of thought in a lamentable manner. The Dor, with its 

 beautiful purple-green body and helmeted head, is not 

 nearly so tiresome although it does occasionally thump 

 us as it ' wheels its droning flight,' or startles us with its 

 deep, heavy drone at our ears. 



There is another beetle to whom we are more lenient. 

 The Glowworm has just begun to light her blue-green 

 lamp a very Hero holding forth a torch to her Leander, 

 who is flying above, and anxiously looking out for the 

 welcome signal. See ! down he comes with a wheel and 

 furling of gauzy wings within their dark cases ; and you 

 may see Hero and Leander safely met. But how very 

 odd ! Hero is not one bit like Leander. She does not 

 seem to belong even to the same class of beings, much 

 less to the same species, as her lover. Leander is a 

 long-bodied, wide-headed, brisk-looking beetle, with 

 two ample pellucid wings enclosed in their protecting 

 shields; whereas Hero is a flattish, slow, crawling, 

 ordinary-looking, rather repulsive brown grub, with 

 never a vestige of wing and nothing to recommend her 

 to notice. Pick her up quietly, by gathering the leaf 

 on which she sits ; take her home ; lay her on a bit of 

 moist turf, and she will soon shine out for your gratifi- 

 cation. But if you want her to be particularly resplen- 

 dent, just pour a stream of oxygen gas through the 

 vessel in which she is placed, and you will then see a 

 blaze of natural illumination that can only be equalled 

 by the many fire-flies of tropical regions. 



I 



