250 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



blood, or something in insectology corresponding 

 to it. The earwig's lustre is that of antiquity. He 

 existed on earth before colour came in; and colour 

 is old, although not so old as Nature's unconscious 

 aestheticism which, in the organic world, is first 

 expressed in beauty of form. It is long since the 

 great May flies, large as swifts, had their aerial 

 cloudy dances over the vast everglades and ancient 

 forests of ferns ; and when, on some dark night, a 

 brilliant Will-o'-the-wisp rose and floated above 

 the feathery foliage, drawn in myriads to its light, 

 they revolved about it in an immense mystical 

 wheel, misty-white, glistening, and touched with 

 prismatic colour. Floating fire and wheel were 

 visible only to the stars, and the wakeful eyes of 

 giant scaly monsters lying quiescent in the black 

 waters below ; but they were very beautiful never- 

 theless. The modest earwig was old on the earth 

 even then; he dates back to the time, immeasur- 

 ably remote, when scorpions possessed the earth, 

 and taught him to frighten his enemies with a 

 stingless tail — that curious antique little tail which 

 has not yet forgot its cunning. 



Greater than all these inhabitants of the 

 garden, ancient or modern by reason of their 



