208 UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



of these suggestions have been demonstrated ; but that 

 it is a common means by which these beetles seek their 

 own kind is the most probable. Occasionally the num- 

 bers of these " lightning-bugs," as they are popularly 

 called, is phenomenal. On several occasions, and always 

 preceding a rain-storm, I have seen them so numerous 

 in tangled thickets that the place was really lit up by 

 them, and roosting birds were roused and bewildered by 

 the flickering light. Such instances brought to mind 

 what travellers liave recorded of tropical species of fire- 

 beetles, and the lines of Southey are very applicable: 



" Sorrowing we beheld 

 The night come on: but soon did night display 

 More wonders than it veiled; innumerous tribes 

 From the wood-cover swarmed, and darkness made 

 Their beauties visible ; a while they streamed 

 A bright blue radiance upon flowers that closed 

 Their gorgeous colors from the eye of day; 

 Then, motionless and dark, eluded search, 

 Self-shrouded ; and anon, starring the sky, 

 Rose like a shower of fire." 



July 3. — Whether the warmth of the days, or much 

 mechanical labor, is the cause, I do not know ; but ram- 

 bling has suddenly grown distasteful, and I am content 

 with the garden and the pasture-lot beyond. Have they 

 any especial attractions now? None that I know of; 

 but July is not an active month in animal life, and 

 when we doubt the presence of such creatures as we de- 

 sire to see, then one incentive to ramble is gone ; but, on 

 the other hand, idleness prompts to mischief, so I have 

 been experimenting with the king-birds that are nesting 

 in the strawberry apple-tree. 



