ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 379 



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, OT 

 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 wea- 

 ther, 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 win- 

 dows, 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 sup- 

 port 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. 



TIPUL^E, OR EMPEDES. May. Millions of em- 

 pedes, 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 1st of August, about half an 



