NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 213 



of the females, which is eaten by ants as well as flies. Though 

 the utmost severity of our winter did not destroy these insects, 

 yet the attention of the gardener in a summer or two has 

 entirely relieved my vine from this filthy annoyance. 



As we have remarked above that insects are often conveyed 

 from one country to another in a very unaccountable manner, 

 I shall here mention an emigration of small aphides, which was 

 observed in the village of Selborne no longer ago than August 

 ist, 1785. 



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-flies, which fell in these parts. Those 

 that were walking in the street at that juncture found them- 

 selves covered with these insects, which settled also on the 

 hedges and gardens, blackening all the vegetables where they 

 alighted. My annuals were discolored 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 emi- 

 gration, 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. 



LETTER LIV 



DEAR SIR, When I happen to visit a family where gold 

 and silver fishes are kept in a glass bowl, I am always pleased 

 with the occurrence, because it offers me an opportunity of 

 observing the actions and propensities of those beings with 

 whom we can be little acquainted in their natural state. Not 

 long since I spent a fortnight at the house of a friend where 

 there was such a vivary, to which I paid no small attention, 

 taking every occasion to remark what passed within its narrow 

 limits. It was here that I first observed the manner in which 

 fishes die. 1 As soon as the creature sickens, the head sinks 

 lower and lower, and it stands as it were on its head ; till, get- 



