OF SELBORNE. 99 
hirundines and the larger bats are supported by 
some sorts of high-flying gnats, scarabs, or phalene, 
that are of short continuance, and that the short 
stay of these strangers is regulated by the defect 
of their food. 
By my journal it appears that curlews clamoured ° 
on to October the thirty-first, since which I have 
not seen or heard any. Swallows were observed 
on to November the third. 
LETTER XXVII. 
Selborne, Feb. 22, 1770. 
Dear Sir,—Hepeenoes abound in my gardens 
and fields. ‘The manner in which they eat the 
roots of the plantain in my grasswalk is very curi- 
ous: with their upper mandible, which is much 
longer than their lower, they bore under the plant, 
and so eat the root off upward, leaving the tuft of 
leaves untouched. In this respect they are service- 
able, as they destroy a very troublesome weed ; 
but they deface the walks in some measure by dig- 
