THE GLOWWORM. 301 



but rather incite our ardour to investigate so ex- 

 haustless a store, which will lead us, from contem- 

 plation, to admiration, to devotion. 



That pretty sparkler of our summer evenings, so 

 often made the ploughboy's prize, the only brilliant 

 that glitters in the rustic's hat, the glowworm 

 (lampyris noctiluca), is not found in such numbers 

 with us as in many other places, where these signal 

 tapers glimmer upon every grassy bank ; yet, in 

 some seasons, we have a reasonable sprinkling of 

 them. Every body probably knows, that the male 

 glowworm is a winged, erratic animal, yet may not 

 have seen him. He has ever been a scarce creature 

 to me, meeting, perhaps, with one or two in a year ; 

 and, when found, always a subject of admiration. 

 Most creatures have their eyes so placed as to be 

 enabled to see about them ; or, as Hook says of 

 the house-fly, to be u circumspect animals;' 1 but 

 this male glowworm has a contrivance by which 

 any upward or side vision is prevented. Viewed 

 when at rest, no portion of his eye is visible, but 

 the head is margined with a horny band, or plate, 

 being a character of one of the genera of the order 

 Coleoptera, under which the eyes are situate. This 

 prevents all upward vision ; and blinds, or winkers, 

 are so fixed at the sides of his eyes as greatly to 

 impede the view of all lateral objects. (See Plate 5, 

 Fig. 2.) The chief end of this creature in his 

 nightly peregrinations is to seek his mate, always 

 beneath him on the earth ; and hence this apparatus 

 appears designed to facilitate his search, confining 



