no one can tell.[1] As day declines,
the moths issue from their retreats, the crickets add their shrill
voices to swell the din; and when darkness descends, the eye is charmed
with the millions of emerald lamps lighted up by the fire-flies amidst
the surrounding gloom.

[Footnote 1: The butterflies I have seen in these wonderful migrations
in Ceylon were mostly _Callidryas Hilariae, C. Alcmeone_, and _C.
Pyranthe_, with straggling individuals of the genus _Euploea, E. Coras_,
and _E. Prothoe_. Their passage took place in April and May, generally
in a north-easterly direction.]

No attempt has as yet been made to describe the class systematically,
much less to enumerate the prodigious number of species which abound in
every locality. Occasional observers have, from time to time,
contributed notices of particular families to the Scientific
Associations of Europe, but their papers remain undigested, and the time
has not yet arrived for the preparation of an Entomology of the island.

What Darwin remarks of the Coleoptera of Brazil is nearly as applicable
to the same order of insects in Ceylon: "The number of minute and
obscurely coloured beetles is exceedingly great; the cabinets of Europe
can as yet, with partial exceptions, boast only of the larger species
from tropical climates, and it is sufficient to disturb the composure of
an entomologist to look forward to the future dimensions of a catalogue
with any pretensions to completeness."[l]

[Footnote 1: _Nat. Journal_, p. 39.]

M. Neitner, a German entomologist, who has spent some years in Ceylon,
has recently published, in one of the local periodicals, a series of
papers on the Coleoptera of the island, in which every species
introduced is stated to be previously undescribed.[1]

[Footnote 1: Republished in the _Ann. Nat. Hist_.]

COLEOPTERA.--_Buprestidoe; Golden Beetles_.--In the morning the
herbaceous plants, especially on the eastern side of the island, are
studded with these gorgeous beetles whose golden elytra[1] are used to
enrich the embroidery of the Indian zenana, whilst the lustrous joints
of the legs are strung on silken threads, and form necklaces and
bracelets of singular brilliancy.

[Footnote 1: _Sternocera Chrysis; S. sternicornis_.]

These exquisite colours are not confined to one order, and some of the
Elateridae[1] and Lamellicorns exhibit hues of green and blue, that rival
the deepest tints of the emerald and sapphire.

[Footnote 1: Of