GLOW-WORM. 145 



radiance and a hand skilfully dipped in the water ap- 

 pears to be kindling. There seems little reason to 

 doubt that all those lights are produced by decom- 

 position, whether of the ultimate destruction of dead 

 animals or of the separation of waste in living ones ; 

 and that they are nothing more than .some of the 

 highly inflammable gaseous compounds kindled by 

 the friction of motion. That they do exist in living 

 animals is seen in the various species of fireflies, 

 which in some parts of the tropical countries make 

 the evening sky as brilliant as if the whole heavens 

 were hung with countless myriads of little lamps, 

 and all those lamps were dancing in mazes of inces- 

 sant motion. We have no luminous flying insect in 

 this country ; but the female glow-worm, which is 

 not uncommon under hedges in the warmer places 

 of England, and at the warm season of the year, 

 emits a beautiful bluish white light, which appears 

 much brighter in consequence of the dark and shady 

 places in which it is seen. The male of the glow- 

 worm is a winged insect, which flies low in the 

 evenings, but emits no light. 



THE GLOW-WORM, MALE AND FEMALE. 



N 



