OBSEEVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VEEMES. 335 



the shrubbery, and frisking about as if the business of gene- 

 ration was still going on. Hence it appears that these 

 diptera (which by their sizes appear to be of different species) 

 are not subject to a torpid state in the winter, as most 

 winged insects are. At night, and in frosty weather, and 

 when it rains and blows, they seem to retire into those trees. 

 They often are out in a fog. WHITE. 



This I have also seen, and have frequently observed swarms 

 of little winged insects playing up and down in the air in 

 the middle of the winter, even when the ground has been 

 covered with snow. MAEKWICK. 



HUMMING IN THE AIE. There is a natural occurrence 

 to be met with upon the highest part of our down in hot 

 summer days, which always amuses me much, without giving 

 me any satisfaction with respect 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. This sound is to be heard distinctly 

 the whole common through, from the Money-dells, to Mr. 

 White's avenue gate. Any person would suppose that a 

 large swarm of bees was in motion, and playing about over 

 his head. This noise was heard last week, on June 28th. 



" Resounds the living surface of the ground, 

 Nor undelightful is the ceaseless hum 



To him who muses at noon. 



Thick in yon stream of light, a thousand ways, 

 Upward and downward, thwarting and convolVd, 

 The quivering nations sport." THOMSON'S Seasons. 



WHITE. 



CHAFFEES. Cockchaffers * seldom abound oftener than 

 once in three or four years ; when they swarm, they deface 

 the trees and hedges. Whole woods of oaks are stripped 

 bare by them. 



Chaffers are eaten by the turkey, the rook, and the house- 

 sparrow.f 



* Farmers have told me that when chaffers abound, they fall from trees and 

 hedges on the backs of the sheep, where, becoming entangled in the wool, they 

 die, and being blown by flies, fill the sheep with maggots. ED. 



f Rooks destroy an immense number of chaffers, not only in the grub 



