COLEOPTEROUS INSECTS. 
163 
the purposes above mentioned. The mode in which 
they are taken, and several curious particulars re- 
specting their appearance and uses, are thus quaintly 
described by an old author : — “ Whoso wanteth 
cucuij,” says Pietro Martire, in his Decades of the 
New World, “ goeth out of the house in the first 
twilight of the night, carrying a burning fire-brande 
in his hande, and ascendeth the next hillock, that 
the cucuij may see it, and hee swingeth the fire- 
brande about, calling cucuius aloud, and beateth the 
ayre with often calling and crying out cucuie, cu - 
cuie. Many simple people suppose that the cucuij, 
delighted with that noise, come flying and flocking 
together to the bellowing sound of him that calleth 
them, for they come with a speedy and headlong 
course; but I rather thinke that the cucuij make 
haste to the brightness of the fire-brande, because 
swarmes of gnattes fly into every light, which the 
cucuij eat in the very ayre, as the martlets and 
swallowes doe. Some cucuius sometimes followeth 
the fire-brande, and lighteth on the grounde ; then 
is he easily taken, as travellers may take a beetle if 
they have need thereof walking with his wings shut. 
In sport and merriment, or to the intent to terrify 
such as are afrayed of every shadow, they say that 
many wanton wild fellowes sometimes rubbed their 
faces by night with the fleshe of a cucuius, being 
killed, with purpose to meet their neighbours with 
a flaming countenance, as with us wanton young 
men, putting a gaping vizard over their face, en- 
