JULY 



'5 



I find an Attacus luna half hidden under a skunk- 

 cabbage leaf, with its back to the ground and 

 motionless, on the edge of a swamp. The under- 

 side is a particularly pale, hoary green. It is 

 somewhat greener above, with a slightly purplish 

 brown border on the front edge of its front wings, 

 and a brown, yellowish, and whitish eye-spot in 

 the middle of each wing. It is very sluggish, and 

 allows me to turn it over and cover it up with 

 another leaf, sleeping till the night comes. It has 

 more relation to the moon by its pale, hoary green 

 color, and its sluggishness by day, than by the 



form of its tail. 



THOREAU: Summer. 



16 



The sandpiper tilts along the shelving shore. 

 Out of an embowered harbor a wood duck convoys 

 her fleet of ducklings, and on the ripples of their 

 wake the anchored argosies of the water lilies toss 

 and cast adrift their cargoes of perfume. Above 

 them the green heron perches on an overhanging 

 branch, uncouth but alert, whether sentinel or 

 scout, flapping his awkward way along the ambient 

 bends and reaches. With slow wing-beats he 

 signals the coming of some more lazily moving 

 boat, that drifts at the languid will of the current 

 or indolent pull of oars that grate on the golden- 

 meshed sand and pebbles. 



ROBINSON: In New England Fields and Woods. 



