NOISES OF IXSECTS. 3/7 



truth Is, they only fly in fine weather. Mr. White has 

 remark; J, that in the dask of the evening- beetles begin 

 to buz, and that partridges be;;''^ to call exactly at the 

 same tinie^. The common cockchafer, and that which 

 appears at the Slimmer solstice (7!/e/o/o«^Aa t/M/^an'^ and 

 solstitialis, F.), when they iiover over the summits of 

 trees in ourn'oers, produce a hum somewhat resembling 

 that of bees swarming. Perhaps some insect of this 

 kind may occasion tlie humming in the air mentioned 

 by Mr. White, and which you and I have often heard 

 in other places. " There is," says he, " a natural oc- 

 currence to be met with in the highest part of our 

 down on the hot summer days, which always amuses 

 me much, without giving me any satisfaction with re- 

 spect to the cause of it ; — and that is a loud audible 

 humming of bees in the air, though not one insect is to 



be seen. Any person would suppose that a large 



swarm of bees was in motion, and playing about over 

 his head\" 



*' Resounds the living surface of the ground — 

 Nor undelightful is the ceaseless hum 

 To hiiii who muses throiii;h the woods at noon, 

 Or drowsy shepherd as he lies rec!iii"d." 



The hotter the weather, the higher insects will soar ; 

 and it is not improbable that the soOnd produced by 

 numbers niay be heard, when those that produce it are 

 out of sight. — The burying-beetle {Necrophorus Ves- 

 pillo, F.), whose singular history *" so much am used you, 

 as well as Cicinckla sj/lvatica of the same order, flies 

 likewise, as I have more than once witnessed, with a 

 considerable hum. 



^ Nat. h'lst. ii. 251. * Ibid. 956. "= Vol. I. 2d Ed. 351—. 



