Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/728

656 immediately above the entrance to her lair, but the anxious mother passed through this to bring a second and then a third kitten, until all her family were rescued from the flood.

Not only are nocturnal insects roused by the rains, but the butterflies also come forth from their chrysalids. We have an Aristolochia picta climbing up the gallery which has been seriously checked by the continual attacks of one particular species. It is a handsome creature, with black wings edged with yellow. As the rains fall, the plant puts out new shoots, and almost immediately the leaves and stems are dotted with yellow eggs. The butterflies come into the open gallery sometimes three or four at a time, and refuse to be driven off until they have done their work. In two or three days the caterpillars are at work, and with all our attention the plant is often quite denuded.

The frogs come forth from their hiding places as the canals become filled, with their rejoicing croak and hubble-bubble. Toward evening another species chirps and makes up to some extent for the absence of singing birds: in fact, it has been called the Demerara nightingale. After nightfall fireflies swarm over the marshy places, twinkling like myriads of stars, and they sail here and there in search of prey; for, of course, the gnats and midges and mosquitoes are at hand in such places. They also come into the house occasionally, but not in great numbers.

We have read of fireflies glancing through myrtle boughs and lighting up the dark arches of the forest, but rarely indeed do we see them among bushes, and never in the virgin forest. Their prey can not be found in such places. Over a marshy spot, however, they dart by thousands, each for an instant shining forth and as quickly hiding its light. Here, also, mosquitoes swarm, to pounce upon the unlucky wanderer who goes "mooning" about after dark.

In our garden the ferns are suddenly infested with caterpillars. The young and succulent fronds are delicate morsels, and as the rain brings them forth their enemies come to the front. Yonder pretty specimen of Adiantum farleyense was pushing out three delicate croziers yesterday; now they are nothing but bare stalks, while the fat green larva which has done the mischief hides behind one of them. Snails also appear from you know not where, to get a share of the succulent young shoots, and grasshoppers follow to almost denude a plant of leaves during the night.

Under the arc lights on the street are scattered hundreds of beetles, and round them hover great batlike sphinges, impatient to destroy themselves. Prevented from getting inside the globes, they dash themselves against the barrier, to fall or go off at a tangent. As you stroll along in the moonlight, the odors of a