FIRE-FLIES. 35 



the broad belt of reeds which margined the river was 

 thronged with myriads of dancing gleams, and the air was 

 filled with what looked like thousands of shooting stars. 



Beautiful, however, as these spectacles were, I had not 

 known what insects could effect in the way of illumi- 

 nation till I visited Jamaica. There, in the gorgeous 

 night of a tropical forest, I saw them in their glory. In 

 the glades and dells that open here and there from a 

 winding mountain-road cut through the tall woods, I have 

 delighted to linger and see the magnificent gloom lighted 

 up by multitudes of fire-flies of various species, peculiari- 

 ties in whose luminosity of colour, intensity, and inter- 

 mittence enabled me to distinguish each from others. I 

 delighted to watch and study their habits in these lonely 

 spots, while the strange sounds, snorings, screeches, and 

 ringings of nocturnal reptiles and insects, already de- 

 scribed, were coming up from every part of the deep forest 

 around, imparting to the scene a character which seemed 

 as if it would suit the weird hunter of German fable. 



There are two kinds in particular, of larger size than 

 usual, which are very conspicuous. One of these * is 

 more vagrant than the other, shooting about with a 

 headlong flight, and rarely observed in repose. Its light 

 appears of a rich orange hue when seen abroad ; but it 

 frequently flies in at open windows, and, when examined 

 under candle-light, its luminosity is yellow : when held 

 in the fingers, the light is seen to fill the hinder part of 

 the body with dazzling effulgence, which intermits its 



* Pyyolampis xantliophotis. 



