mornings and evenings become chilly, many species of flies (musca) retire into houses, and swarm in the windows.

At first they are very brisk and alert; but, as they grow more torpid, one cannot help observing that they move with difficulty, and are scarce able to lift their legs, which seem as if glued to the glass; and, by degrees, many do actually stick on till they die in the place.

It has been observed that divers flies, besides their sharp hooked nails, have also skinny palms or flaps to their feet whereby they are enabled to stick on glass and other smooth bodies, and to walk on ceilings with their backs downward, by means of the pressure of the atmosphere on those flaps; the weight of which they easily overcome in warm weather, when they are brisk and alert. But, in the decline of the year, this resistance becomes too mighty for their diminished strength; and we see flies labouring along, and lugging their feet in windows, as if they stuck fast to the glass, and it is with the utmost difficulty they can draw one foot after another, and disengage their hollow caps from the slippery surface.

Upon the same principle that flies stick and support themselves, do boys, by way of play, carry heavy weights by only a piece of wet leather, at the end of a string, clapped close on the surface of a stone. WHITE.

TIPULE, OR EMPEDES.-May.-Millions of empedes, or tipula, come forth at the close of day, and swarm to such a degree as to fill the air. At this juncture they sport and copulate; as it grows more dark, they retire. All day they hide in the hedges. As they rise in a cloud, they appear

like smoke.

I do not ever remember to have seen such swarms, except in the fens of the Isle of Ely. They appear most over grass grounds. WHITE.

APHIDES.-On the first of August, about half an hour after three in the afternoon, the people of Selborne were

Australia, where they promise soon to be a complete pest. Nature does not appear to have made any provision to guard against this great increase of insects by means of insectivorous birds.-E.

surprised by a shower of aphides, which fell in these parts. They who were walking the streets at that time, found themselves covered with these insects, which settled also on the trees and gardens, and blackened all the vegetables where they alighted. These armies, no doubt, were then in a state of emigration, and shifting their quarters; and might, perhaps, come from the great hop plantations of Kent or Sussex, the wind being that day at north. They were observed at the same time at Farnham, and all along the Vale at Alton.

WHITE

ANTS.*-August 23.-Every ant-hill, about this time, is in a strange hurry and confusion; and all the winged ants, agitated by some violent impulse, are leaving their homes, and, bent on emigration, swarm by myriads in the air, to the great emolument of the hirudines, which fare luxuriously. Those that escape the swallows, return no more to their nests, but, looking out for fresh settlements, lay a foundation for future colonies. All the females at this time are pregnant; the males that escape being eaten, wander away and die.

October 2.-Flying ants, male and female, usually swarm and migrate on hot sunny days in August and September but this day a vast emigration took place in my garden, and myriads came forth, in appearance, from the drain which goes under the fruit wall; filling the air and the adjoining trees and shrubs with their numbers. The females were full of eggs. This late swarming is probably owing to the backward wet season. The day following, not one flying ant was to be seen.

Horse ants travel home to their nests laden with flies, which they have caught, and the aurelia of smaller ants, which they seize by violence. WHITE.

In my Naturalist's Calendar for the year 1777, on

* Mr. White in his unpublished MSS., states that "a colony of black ants comes forth every Midsummer from under my staircase, which stands in the middle of my house; and as soon as the males and females (which fill all the windows and rooms) are flown away, the workers retire under the stairs, and are seen no more. It does not appear how this nest can have any communication with the garden and yard; and if not, how can these ants subsist in perpetual darkness and confinement ?"--ED.

September 6th, I find the following note to the article, Flying Ants:

I saw a prodigious swarm of these ants flying about the top of some tall elm trees close by my house: some were continually dropping to the ground as if from the trees, and others rising up from the ground: many of them were joined together in copulation: and I imagine their life is but short; for as soon as produced from the egg by the heat of the sun, they propagate their species, and soon after perish. They were black, somewhat like the small black ant, and had four wings. I saw, also, at another place, a large sort, which were yellowish. On the 8th of September, 1785, I again observed the same circumstance of a vast number of these insects flying near the tops of the elms, and dropping to the ground.

On the 2nd of March, 1777, I saw great numbers of ants come out of the ground. MARKWICK.

GLOW-WORMS.-By observing two glow-worms, which were brought from the field to the bank in the garden, it appeared to us that these little creatures put out their lamps between eleven and twelve, and shine no more for the rest of the night.

Male glow-worms, attracted by the light of the candles, come into the parlour. WHITE.

EARTH-WORMS.-Earth-worms make their casts most in mild weather, about March and April; they do not lie torpid in winter, but come forth when there is no frost; they travel about in rainy nights, as appears from their sinuous tracks on the soft muddy soil, perhaps in search of food.

When earth-worms lie out a-nights on the turf, though they extend their bodies a great way, they do not quite leave their holes, but keep the ends of their tails fixed therein, so that, on the least alarm, they can retire with precipitation under the earth.* Whatever food falls within their reach

* I have observed the same fact with respect to eels in Windermere lake, Westmoreland. On a perfectly calm day, while in a boat, I have seen eels, with the ends of their tails remaining in their holes, slide back into them, like earth-worms, on being disturbed.--ED.