The Natural History of Selborne 437 



the atmosphere on those flaps ; the weight of which they easily 

 overcome in warm weather, when they are brisk and alert. But in 

 the decline of the year, this resistance becomes too mighty for their 

 diminished strength ; and we see flies labouring along, and lugging 

 their feet in windows as if they stuck to the glass, and it is with the 

 utmost difficulty they can draw one foot after another, and disengage 

 their hollow caps from the slippery surface. 



Upon the same principle that flies stick and support themselves ; do 

 boys, by way of play, carry heavy weights by only a piece of wet 

 leather at the end of a string clapped close on the surface of a stone. 

 WHITE. 



TIPUL^E, OR EMPEDES. 



MAY. Millions of empedes, or tipul<e, come forth at the close of day, 

 and swarm to such a degree as to fill the air. At this juncture they 

 sport and copulate ; as it grows more dark they retire. All day they 

 hide in the hedges. As they rise in a cloud they appear like smoke. 

 I do not remember to have seen such swarms, except in the fens of 

 the Isle of Ely. They appear most over grass grounds. WHITE. 



APHIDES. 



ON the ist of August, about half an hour after three in the after- 

 noon, the people of Selborne were surprised by a shower of aphides 

 which fell in these parts. They who were walking in the streets at 

 that time found themselves covered with these insects, which settled 

 also on the trees and gardens, and blackened all the vegetables where 

 they alighted. These armies, no doubt, were in a state of emigration, 

 and shifting their quarters ; and might perhaps come from the great 

 hop-plantations of Kent or Sussex, the wind being that day at north. 

 They were observed at the same time at Farnham, and all along the 

 vale of Alton. WHITE. 



