354 Observations on Igncs Fatui. 



Will-with-the-wisps flying about each other, apparently at 

 play, which they did for a considerable time, and at last 

 settled on a furze bush. 



These remarks corroborated the opinion of Messrs. Dick- 

 son and Curtis ; and, on referring to the Transactions of the 

 Royal Society, vol. v., there is a communication on the same 

 subject by Derham, who says, — 



"It being the opinion of divers skilful naturalists, particu- 

 larly Mr. Francis Willughby and Mr. Ray, that the Ignes 

 Fatui are only the shining of a great number of the male glow- 

 worms, in England, or of the Pyraustse in Italy, flying to- 

 gether. 



" My own observations 1 made at a place that lay in a 

 valley between rocky hills, which, I suspect, might con- 

 tain minerals, in some boggy ground near the bottom of those 

 hills. When seeing one in a calm dead night, with gentle 

 approaches I got up by degrees, within two or three yards 

 of it, and viewed it with all the care I possibly could. I 

 found it frisking about a dead thistle, growing in the field, 

 until a small motion of the air (even such as was caused by 

 the approximation of myself) made it skip to another place, 

 and thence to another and another." 



It is generally allowed that the male glowworm (Lam- 

 pyris noctiliica) is slightly luminous, yet not sufficiently so to 

 put on the appearance mentioned by Derham. The follow- 

 ing remarks by Mr. Arthur Aikin, in his Tour through Hales, 

 p. 60., will somewhat elucidate the subject: — 



" I was not a little surprised to see the glowworms, at our 

 approach, darting over the hedges into the fields. Knowing 

 the female alone to be luminous, and, at the same time, de- 

 stitute of wings, this phenomenon puzzled me a good deal ; 

 nor can I account for it, except upon the supposition of the 

 male bearing the female through the air when in the act of 

 their amours." 



Wishing to obtain all the information I could on a subject 

 so interesting, I spoke of it to my kind and intelligent friend, 

 Thomas Stothard, Esq., R.A., who, besides possessing talents 

 of the highest order in every department of art, is an excellent 

 practical entomologist. From this gentleman I received the 

 following letter : — 



"June 16. 1823. Newman Street. 



"My good Sir, — Agreeably to your request, I send you 

 the best account my recollection will supply of the Ignis 

 Fatuus we conversed about when last together. 



"As I was returning from Plymouth early in June, 1821, 

 having travelled all the preceding day and night, and had 



