anfr Stars 63 



" Personal Narrative," mention the greenish light of 

 the glow-worm. In descending the little river Man- 

 zanares, the thorny bushes on the adjacent arid land 

 glittered during the night with thousands of luminous 

 sparks. The traveller in the equinoctial regions, he 

 adds, is never weary of admiring the effect of these 

 " reddish and movable fires," which, being reflected 

 in limpid water, " blend their radiance with that of 

 the starry vault of heaven." At Trinidad, also, he 

 relates that the grass, the branches and foliage of the 

 trees, all shone with that "reddish and movable 

 light which varies in its intensity at the will of the 

 animal by which it is produced." 



Though, as I have said, the colour-comparison of a 

 star with a glow-worm is apt, the comparison as a 

 whole is not so fortunate, for does not that patient 

 and accurate observer, Gilbert White, tell us that the 

 glow-worm puts out its lamp between eleven o'clock 

 and midnight, and shines no more until the following 

 evening, whereas the stars - . 



The French writer's reference to the " fickle one " 

 having wings is in accordance with scientific fact. In 

 a foot-note to the above-mentioned allusion in White's 

 Selborne, Wood says : " Both sexes of this curious 

 beetle give out the peculiar greenish light, but that of 

 the male is very faint indeed. As is not infrequently 

 the case with insects, the male only is furnished with 

 wings, the female compounding for the plainness of 

 her form by the brilliancy of her light." But the 

 science embodied in R6my Terrier's pretty conceit 

 does not so much appeal to me as the poetic glamour 

 with which he has so entrancingly invested the con- 

 ceit. 



