OF SELBORNE 57 



While deep'ning shades obscure the face of day 



To yonder bench leaf-shelter' d, let us stray, 



Till blended objects fail the swimming sight, 



And all the fading landscape sinks in night ; 



To hear the drowsy dor come brushing by 



With buzzing wing, or the shrill l cricket cry ; 



To see the feeding bat glance through the wood ; 



To catch the distant falling of the flood ; 



While o'er the cliff th' awaken'd churn-owl hung 



Through the still gloom protracts his chattering song ; 



While high in air, and pois'd upon his wings, 



Unseen, the soft enamour' d 2 woodlark sings : 



These, NATURE'S works, the curious mind employ, 



Inspire a soothing melancholy joy : 



As fancy warms, a pleasing kind of pain 



Steals o'er the cheek, and thrills the creeping vein ! 



Each rural sight, each sound, each smell, combine ; 



The tinkling sheep-bell, or the breath of kine ; 



The new-mown hay that scents the swelling breeze, 



Or cottage-chimney smoking through the trees. 



The chilling night-dews fall : away, retire ; 



For see, the glow-worm lights her amorous fire ! 3 



1 Gryllus campestris. 



2 In hot summer nights woodlarks soar to a prodigious height and hang sing- 

 ing in the air. 



3 The light of the female glow-worm (as she often crawls up the stalk of a grass 

 to make herself more conspicuous) is a signal to the male, which is a slender dusky 

 scarabceus. 



\Lampyris noctiluca, L. 



" The use of the bright light of the female glow-worm has been subject to much 

 discussion. The male is feebly luminous, as are the larvae and even the eggs. It 

 has been supposed by some authors that the light serves to frighten away enemies, 

 and by others to guide the male to the female. At last, Mr. Belt ( The Naturalist 

 in Nicaragua, 1874, pp. 316-320) appears to have solved the difficulty : he finds 

 that all the Lampyridce which he has tried are highly distasteful to insectivorous 

 mammals and birds. Hence it is in accordance with Mr. Bates' view, hereafter to 

 be explained, that many insects mimic the Lampyridce closely, in order to be mis- 

 taken for them, and thus to escape destruction. He further believes that the 

 luminous species profit by being at once recognised as unpalatable. It is probable 

 that the same explanation may be extended to the Elaters, both sexes of which are 

 highly luminous. It is not known why the wings of the female glow-worm have not 

 been developed ; but in her present state she closely resembles a larva, and as 

 larvae are so largely preyed on by many animals, we can understand why she has 

 been rendered so much more luminous and conspicuous than the male ; and why 

 the larvae themselves are likewise luminous" (Darwin, Descent of Man, chap. x. ). 



In the glow-worm and some other Lampyridce the female resembles a larva, 

 while the male is fully winged ; in these the eyes of the male are much larger than 

 those of the female. In the majority of the species, however, the wings are well 



