Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/174

Rh out, and then extinguished, as is the case with the American firefly, but shining steadily as long as it remains on the wing: you can scarcely conceive how beautiful it is. Imagine now the planets Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and others as bright, coming down from above, and flying around through the air, over the roof, and among the trees and bushes, and you behold the cuculio; it has the loveliest, clear blue fire which you can imagine.

Fireflies make their appearance at the commencement of the rainy season, and h as we have now had a couple of small showers, to the great joy of the coffee-planters, the cuculios show themselves as soon as it begins to grow dark. They are not, however, numerous as yet; but I am told that when the rainy season sets in, in May, June, and July, they become so numerous that the heads of large trees are sometimes entirely covered with them, and gleam out as from millions of little tapers. It is not known here how and whence they come, it is maintained that during the dry season they conceal themselves in decayed trees; they now feed on sugar-cane, and I have a whole party in a glass in my room, where they sack pieces of sugar-cane. They seem to be very well off there, and think more about eating, apparently, than freedom; they sit quite still and suck the cane, and their light seems dimmed the while; but if I oblige them with a bath of fresh water, it becomes bright again, and the whole creature more lively. Sometimes when I wake in the night, I hear a buzzing noise in my room, and see one or two cuculios flying about, and lighting up every part of the room which they approach.

I have to day drawn a couple of them in my album. I have here a perfect frenzy, sketching and drawing, people, birds, trees, flowers, dwellings, everything which strikes me; and so much strikes me here, from its beauty or its novelty, that I am in a continual drawing fever. Many of my efforts are not wholly successful, both from want of time and artistic