64 THE beetle's hum. 



wonderful and admirable are their operations that 

 Bonnet says, " When I see an insect working at the 

 construction of a nest or a cocoon, I am impressed 

 with respect, because it seems to me that I am at a 

 spectacle where the supreme Artist is hid behind the 

 curtain." 



The first insect I shall mention, and the one to 

 which I shall confine myself in my present letter, is 

 the common dor, or clock or bhnd beetle, which flies 

 in the summer's evenings, and occasionally startles 

 us by striking against our faces or our persons. 

 This circumstance has been accurately described by 

 Collins : — 



" Now air is hushed save ■ 



■ where the beetle winds 



His small but sullen horn ; 

 As oft he rises, midst the twilight path, 

 Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum." 



Ode to Evening. 



Gray has most happily depicted, in his well-known 

 elegy, the circumstances under which it appears. 

 The flocks are returning from pasture, the husband- 

 man from his toil, the landscape is fading " on the 

 sight," and the air is still, 



" Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight." 



The remarkable sound which accompanies its flight 

 has been frequently noticed. 



