Fire-flies. 
403 
be like the glaze-worme, which shineth most bright in 
the darke?” (Euphues, p. 91). 
Again :— 
“ And yet, as bright as glow-worms in the night, 
With which the morning decks her lovers hayre.” 
(The Woman in the Moon .) 
Lyly also gives ns a curious piece of information :— 
“ Where the rainbow toucheth the tree no caterpillar will hang on 
the leaves; where the gloworme creepeth in the night no adder will 
goe in the day.” (Epilogue to Campaspe .) 
Webster writes:— 
“ Glories, like glow-worms, afar off shine bright, 
But look’d too near have neither heat nor light.” 
( Vittorio, Corombona , act v.) 
Fire-flies of various sizes are described by the early 
explorers. The lantern-fly, found in the West 
Indies, the Malay Archipelago, and in China, 
is mentioned by Champlain, in his account of a voyage 
to the West Indies and Mexico in the year 1599. He 
writes:— 
“ There is a kind of little animal of the size of prawnes, which fly 
by night, and make such light in the air that one would say that they 
were so many little candles. If a man had three or four of these little 
creatures, which are not larger than a filbert, he could read as well at 
night as with a wax light.” (Reprint Ealduyt Soc., 1859, p. 35.) 
Du Bartas (p. 45) classes this insect among the birds 
of the New World:— 
“ bfew-Spain’s cucuio, in his forehead brings 
Two burning lamps, two underneath his wings: 
Whose shining rayes serve oft, in darkest night, 
Th’ imbroderer’s hand in royall works to light: 
TIT ingenious turner, with a wakefull eye, 
To polish fair his purest ivory: 
The usurer to count his glistring treasures: 
The learned scribe to limn his golden measures.” 
