42O ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Nov., 



came in augmented numbers, until they finally fairly catapulted by in 

 thousands and tens of thousands without interruption until it became 

 too dark any longer to see them. 



From out-to-out the flight had a width of 486 paces, outside of this 

 there were not even stragglers. Our house seemed to be the very 

 center of the flight. 



The flies flew near the ground and up as high as they could be dis- 

 tinguished, the greater number at about the level of the roof of our 

 cottage. They moved at high speed and fairly streaked past, so that 

 the eye would take in dozens at a time in looking forward or upward. 

 At first it was difficult to hit any with a hat, but a short half-hour 

 later they came in such great numbers that I struck many of them. 

 It became dark before I picked them up, so missed many, which were 

 blown away during the night. Many others were devoured by ants 

 before I searched the ground this morning. Two of the mutilated 

 I enclose in the package. 



Prior to the appearance of the dragonflies my son and daughter 

 passed through a flight of ants while on the trolley car on a run to 

 Cape May Point, the other extreme of this settlement. They were of 

 two sizes, small winged ants and others shaped like a wasp, but the 

 size of a "yellow-jacket,"' and their flight was over the space from the 

 Point Life-saving Station to the trestle below Cape May proper, a dis- 

 tance of over half a mile. My children report the air full of flying 

 insects, so that passengers on the car were covered with them. The 

 direction of their flight was also against the wind, but in an opposite 

 direction to the later flight of the dragonflies, and probably a mile 

 distant. 



The swarm was followed by flocks of birds, sparrows, swallows, 

 martins, etc. 



The observers also stated that the migration seemed distinctly de- 

 fined, and that on the trolley "everything was crawling with them." 

 The observation was made at about 3.45 to 4 P. M. 



I do not think that the two flights had any relation to each other. 



My children brought home no ant specimens. HERMAN T. WOLF, 

 Cape May, New Jersey, Sept. 3, 1911. 



[The dragonflies sent by Mr. Wolf as forming part of the swarm 

 were all Anax juuius Drury, 4 $ $ , 4 9 9 .P. P. CALVERT.] 



JELLY RAIN. On the morning of Saturday, June 24, the ground 

 here was found to be covered with small masses of jelly about as 

 large as a pea. There had been heavy rain on Friday night, and it 

 was raining at 7 a. in., when, so far as I can ascertain, the phenomenon 

 was first seen. On being examined microscopically, the lumps of jelly 

 turned out to contain numerous ova of some insect, with an ad- 

 vanced embryo in each. The egg itself is very minute an elongated 



