152 THE MAY- FLY. 



" Extinguished not decayed." 1 



Look at these four unequal wings, with nervures so delicately 

 reticulate, resembling the finest lace, the meshes filled by 

 yellowish grassy membrane, and " freaked " with dark brown 

 spots or squares. On the narrow chest, and long and flexible 

 body, the same colours are harmoniously disposed in spots and 

 rings, and even the three slender filaments which form the 

 tail are ringed, en suite, with black and yellow, the whole being 

 coloured by a natural varnish. How nicely jointed, also, and 

 finely polished are the six tapering legs, of which the two 

 foremost are much longer than the others, forming, when 

 placed together and stretched forward, a sort of counterpoise 

 in flight to the filaments of the tail. Besides the large com- 

 pound eyes, which occupy a great portion of the head, we can 

 just discern without a magnifier (and clearly with one) three 

 shining spots disposed in a triangle close behind them. These 

 are the ocelli or simple eyes, common to most other perfect 

 insects. 



And all this external beauty, with external organism yet 

 more admirable, is intended but for the duration and uses of 

 less than a single day ! Fewer organs and far less adornment 

 might seem, in our contracted judgment, to have sufficed for 

 creatures designed during so short a time to employ the former, 

 and to have the latter, in most cases, overlooked at least by 

 human observers. Occasionally indeed, as we are now doing, 

 we are led to amuse what we call an idle hour by bestowing 

 a little more than our wonted notice on the more fleeting and 

 fragile works of nature ; and then, as we admire the elegance 

 of form, the exquisite finish, the curious adaptation of parts, 

 so strikingly if not pre-eminently observable in the flower or 

 the insect of a day, there comes, mingled with our admiration, 

 a feeling somewhat akin to wondering regret that so much 

 pains should have been bestowed on the formation of an 



1 Vignette. 



