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"That's a big bird too." "Crane?" said the captain, with an incredulous snort. "No, sir," said the American: "different thing altogether. It's a night bird that flies round catching beetles and moths bird something like our `Whip-poor-Wills' or `Chuck-Will's-widows." "Bah!" said the captain.
Graceful, stingless Sphexes and Ichneumon-flies emulate their bustle, without their weapons. Delicate lady-birds come and go to the milkweeds, spotted almost as regularly as if Nature had decided to number the species, like policemen or hack-drivers, from one to twenty. Elegant little Lepturae fly with them, so gay and airy, they hardly seem like beetles.
Then down in the clear depths where Fred was peering, every now and then boatman beetles could be seen rowing about with their little pairs of oars, lying upon their backs to make boats of themselves curious little fellows that by night come out of the water, and, opening a pair of cases, send out a bright and beautiful pair of wings, and fly about through the air till the morning.
In June, it changes to the chrysalis state, and early in July the butterfly rises from the cold, damp bogs, where we have oftenest found it, clad in its rich dress of velvety black and red. Of the beetles, those which feed on leaves now become specially active. Many other weevils now abound, stinging the seeds and fruit, and depositing their eggs just under the skin.
If it emerges from this thoroughly purified, in the opinion of the judge, it is immediately transformed into a ho-ho-ya-üh, or prayer-beetle. All the beetles we now see in the valleys or among the mesas were once evil Hopi.
We have reckoned up two millions of beetles! And we have not tamed a single animal since biblical times, when all our animals were already domesticated; but the reindeer, the stag, the partridge, the heath-cock, all remain wild. Our botanists have discovered the cell, and in the cell protoplasm, and in that protoplasm still something more, and in that atom yet another thing.
Most people think 'The Vital Thing' 's serious." "Yes but I mean something different." "In your old line beetles and so forth?" "Yes," said the Professor solemnly. Harviss looked at him with equal gravity. "Well, I'm sorry for that," he said, "because it takes you out of our bailiwick. But I suppose you've made enough money out of 'The Vital Thing' to permit yourself a little harmless amusement.
The three sat their horses and looked to the south for their guests at that delightsome hour of the summer gloaming when the last bees are reluctantly disengaging themselves from the dewy heather bells and the circling beetles begin their booming curfew.
"I have fed them all winter. They came to the dining-room window every morning, and waited for their breakfast; and a funny little woodpecker, blind of one eye, came with them sometimes." "They do lots of good in our gardens," said Mollie, "digging up grubs and beetles. Papa told us so."
This was the time it boiled two hours at least I think it was about that, but we dropped asleep on the kitchen tables and dresser. You dare not be lowly in the night in the kitchen, because of the beetles. We were aroused by a horrible smell. It was the pudding-cloth burning. All the water had secretly boiled itself away. We filled it up at once with cold, and the saucepan cracked.
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