LXXVMI.] 



OF SELBORNE. 



211 



and imperceptibly make amazing havoc in the field and 

 garden. 



Farmer Young, of Norton farm, says that this spring (1777) 

 about four acres of his wheat in one field was entirely destroyed 

 by slugs, which swarmed on the blades of corn, and devoured it 

 as it sprang. 



These hints we think proper to throw out in order to set the 

 inquisitive and discerning to work. 



A good monography of worms would afford much entertain- 

 ment and information at the same time, and would open a large 

 and new field in natural history. Worms work most in the 

 spring ; but by no means lie torpid in the dead months ; they 

 are out every mild night in the winter, as any person may 

 satisfy himself. They are hermaphrodites, and are, conse- 

 quently, very prolific. 



SELBORNE, May 20, 1777. 



LETTEE LXXVIII. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 



You cannot but remember that the 26th and 27th of last 

 March were very hot days ; so sultry that everybody complained, 

 and were restless under those sensations to which they had 

 not been reconciled by gradual approaches. 



This sudden summer-like heat was attended by many summer 

 coincidences ; for on those two days the thermometer rose to 

 sixty-six in the shade ; many species of insects revived and 

 came forth ; some bees swarmed in this neighbourhood ; the old 

 tortoise, near Lewes in Sussex, awakened and came forth out of 

 its dormitory ; and, what is most to my present purpose, many 

 house-swallows appeared, and were very alert in many places, 

 and particularly at Cobham, in Surrey. 



But as that short warm period was succeeded as well as pre- 

 ceded by harsh severe weather, with frequent frosts and ice, and 

 cutting winds, the insects withdrew, the tortoise returned again 



