284 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES 



HUMMING IN THE AIR. 



THERE is a natural occurrence to be met with upon the highest 

 part of our down in hot summer days, which always amuses me 

 much, without giving me any satisfaction with respect to the 

 cause of it ; and that is a loud audible humming of bees in the 

 air, though not one insect is to be seen. This sound is to be 

 heard distinctly the whole common through, from the Money- 

 dells, to Mr. White's avenue gate. Any person would suppose 

 that a large swarm of bees was in motion, and playing about 

 over his head. This noise was hsard last week, on June 28th. 



" Resounds the living surface of the ground, 

 Nor undelightful is the ceaseless hum 



To him who muses at noon. 



Thick in yon stream of light a thousand ways, 

 Upward and downward, thwarting and convolv'd, 

 The quivering nations sport"* 



THOMSON'S SEASONS. 



CHAFFERS. 



COCKCHAFFERS seldom abound oftener than once in three'or four 

 years; when they swarm, they deface the trees and hedges. 

 Whole woods of oaks are stripped bare by them. 



Chaffers are eaten by the turkey, the rook, and the house- 

 sparrow.f 



The scarabcevs solstitialis first appears about June 26 : they 

 are very punctual in their coming out every year. They are a 

 small species, about half the size of the May-chaffer, and are 

 known in some parts by the name of the fern-chaffer. J 



* The exact site whence the humming proceeds is often indicated by a concourse of hungry 

 swallows. ED. 



t A young sparrow which i picked up in my garden, and placed in a cage, for the purpose of 

 ascertaining what food would be brought to it by its parents, was almost wholly fed on these 

 insects. ED. 



t A singular circumstance relative to the cockchaffer, or as it is called here the May-bug, 

 tcarabasus melolontha, happened this year (1800) : My gardener in digging some ground found, 

 about six inches above the surface, two of these insects alive and perfectly formed so early as the 

 24th of March. When We brought them to me, they appeared to be as perfect and as much alive 

 as in the midst of summer, crawling about as briskly as ever; yet I saw no more of this insect 

 till the 22d of May, when it began to make its appearance. How comes it that, though it was 

 perfectly formed so early as the 24th of March, it did not show itself above ground till nearly 

 two months afterwards ? MABKWICK. 



