



Produced by Chris Curnow, Emmy and the Online Distributed
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THE ILLUSTRATIONS ENGRAVED BY DALZIEL BROTHERS.

THE COLOURED PLATES BY KRONHEIM & CO.

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COMIC INSECTS.

    BY
    The Rev. F. A. S. REID, M.A.

    WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

    BY
    BERRY F. BERRY.

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    LONDON:
    FREDERICK WARNE AND CO.,
    BEDFORD STREET, STRAND.

[Illustration: Camden Press

DALZIEL BROTHERS

ENGRAVERS & PRINTERS]




CONTENTS.


                              PAGE
    THE CATERPILLAR              1
    THE MOTH                     7
    THE SNAIL                   13
    THE BEE                     19
    THE BLACK-BEETLE            25
    THE SPIDER                  31

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[Illustration: PREFACE]


    OH, wonder I much what this book contains!
    Can Insects talk, and do they have brains?
    I always thought that these queer little things
    Were made up entirely of legs, wings, and stings.
    A Black-Beetle teach me! And what, Bumble-Bee,
    In all the wide world can you say unto me?
    And surely a Caterpillar never has read?
    With green leaves for books, he would eat them instead;
    While neither a Moth nor a Spider could tell
    How a pen should be held, or correctly could spell.
    And as for poor Snailey,--it's more than absurd,
    He never could read a one-syllable word!
    But I've heard of the School Board, and now it's appalling
    To think that a Moth or a Snail may be calling
    And telling me too, as their little eyes glisten,
    Their funny wee lessons, if only I'll listen.

       *       *       *       *       *

    Yes! they talk in a language that all is their own,
    And here into English you'll find it has grown;
    Where pictures will shew, and the rhymes they will say,
    How Insects can work, talk, and laugh, and be gay.

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[Illustration: INTRODUCTION]




COMIC INSECTS.


    How queer a procession is passing this way,
    Of insects all talking; come, hear what they say!
    The sight is as strange as their words they are true,
    And you'll laugh as they offer their lessons to you.

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[Illustration: "_Led astray._"]




THE CATERPILLAR.


        I'M a Caterpillar green,
        Not the prettiest you have seen,
    And my Chrysalis I enter rather loth;
        Though I know that in the spring
        I shall rise on feathered wing
    In the costume of a fascinating Moth.

[Illustration: "_I'm a Caterpillar green._"]

        Little likeness you will spy,
        With the cleverest little eye,
    'Twixt your green-coated friend of to-day
        And the airy form that sails
        When the golden sunlight pales,
    And the owl flies abroad for his prey.

[Illustration: "_And my Chrysalis I enter rather loth._"]

        Yet the same we are indeed,
        Though the riddle's hard to read,
    One, the Moth and the Caterpillar green;
        And still stranger things than this,
        Which no little one should miss,
    In the Picture Book of Nature can be seen.

[Illustration: "_If you'll only deign to lend your ear._"]

        So I think, my little friend,
        If you'll only deign to lend
    Your ear to these few words that I say,
        Ne'er again will you rely
        For convictions on the eye,
    As appearances have often led astray.

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[Illustration: "_Oh, what a beautiful Moth am I._"]




THE MOTH.


    OH, what a beautiful Moth am I!
    Colours so gay, and sparkling each eye,
    Nobody ever would guess, I ween,
    I once was a Caterpillar all in green.

[Illustration: "_With silver and gold I have decked me too._"]

    I've taken me feathers of brightest hue,
    With silver and gold I have decked me too:
    No, no! you never would guess, I ween,
    I once was a Caterpillar all in green.

    With a tardy foot no longer I crawl
    'Neath the shady leaves, or on ivied wall;
    But, joyously floating in airy height,
    I wander abroad in the pale moonlight;

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