io6 LETTERS TO MARCO xvi 



look so very like hens feeding that their 

 name is easily accounted for ; they give con- 

 tinually a little sort of jerky flitch with their 

 wings when on shore, and are exceedingly 

 alert to danger of any sort. 



There was a letter in the papers last 

 November from some gentleman who had 

 killed two gnats in his bedroom, and wrote 

 of it as a curious evidence of the mildness of 

 the weather ; the fact is, all through the 

 winter, the instant a thaw sets in swarms of 

 gnats and small flies may be seen in sheltered 

 corners near ivy or evergreen shrubs, flying 

 about calmly and composedly as if no such 

 thing as winter existed. Gilbert White men- 

 tions this fact, and during the many curiously 

 intervening thaws which have occurred lately 

 I have noticed it repeatedly. It has been 

 thawing up to 12 P.M. and freezing hard the 

 next morning sometimes, and at others a 

 bright frosty moonlight night has been 

 followed by warm thaw at daybreak. Such, 

 dear Marco, is the mutability of our fickle 



