ifi particular Districts. 259 



ably exciting circumstances, become, more frequently than our 

 philosophy dreameth of, instruments on which Nature delights 

 to play " sounds and sweet airs." That hills and plains, the 

 wilderness and the waters, are in her hands but as " harps whose 

 chords elude the sight ;" though, whether this melody be of 

 " the air or the earth," must remain a matter of mystery, 

 whereupon wisdom yet may ponder. I shall proceed to corro- 

 borate my views by a few instances. It is observed by the 

 author of one of the most delightful minor works * of modern 

 date, that the " purely rural, little noticed, and, indeed, local 

 occurrence, called by the country people Hummings in the air, 

 is annually to be heard in one or two fields near his dwelling. 

 " About the middle of the day, perhaps from twelve o'clock till 

 two, on a few calm sultry days in July," he says, " we occasionally 

 hear, when in particular places, the humming of apparently 

 a large swarm of bees. It is generally in some spacious open 

 spot that this murmuring first arresis our attention. As we 

 move onward, the sound becomes fainter, and by degrees is no 

 longer audible. That this sound proceeds from a collection of 

 bees, or some such insects high in the air, there can be no 

 doubt ; yet the musicians are invisible. At these times a soli- 

 tary insect or so may be observed here and there, occupied in 

 its usual employ ; but this creature takes no part in our aerial 

 orchestra." 



Now, before entirely acquiescing in an opinion thus delivered 

 in the language of certainty, it should be remarked, in ihe^rsi 

 place, That the writer mentions the fact as local and partial, 

 heard only in one or two fields, at particular times of the year, 

 when the air is in a certain state, viz. calm and sultry. In the 

 next place, it may, for good reasons, be fairly doubted, whether 

 it really is produced by insects " high in air;" for it so happens, 

 that, in the bosom of a thick wood, where there is a space par- 

 tially opened, though still a very narrow and confined spot, in 

 days precisely such as lie describes them, i. c. sultry, and in 

 the middle of summer, when the air is calm, I have often 

 paused, to listen to a similar aerial humming, appearing to re- 

 sult from some unseen power close at hand, which for several 



" Journal of a Naturalist, p. 369, 2(1 edit. 



R 2 



