OF SELBORNE. 101 



of Selborne no longer ago than August the 

 1st, 1785. 



At about three o'clock in the afternoon 

 of that day, which was very hot, the 

 people of this village were surprised by a 

 shower of aphides, or smother -flics, which 

 fell in these parts. Those that were walk- 

 ing in the street at that juncture found 

 themselves covered with these insects, 

 which settled also on the hedges and gar- 

 dens, blackening all the vegetables where 

 they alighted. My annuals were discolour- 

 ed with them, and the stalks of a bed of 

 onions were quite coated over for six days 

 after. These armies were then, no doubt, 

 in a state of emigration, and shifting their 

 quarters ; and might have come, as far as 

 we know, from the great hop-plantations 

 of Kent or Sussex, the wind being all that 

 day in the easterly quarter. They were 

 observed at the same time in great clouds 

 about Farnham, and all along the vale 

 from Farnham to Alton.* 



* For various methods by which several insects shift 

 their quarters, see Derhanfs Physico-TIieolog'y. 



