360 The Natural History of Selborne 



themselves covered with these insects, which settled also on 

 the hedges and gardens, blackening all the vegetables where 

 they alighted. My annuals were discoloured 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. 1 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 

 Derham's " Physico-Theology." 



1 Winged aphides are specially produced under certain circumstances as 

 foundresses of colonies, and blow away at times in great numbers. Eu. 



