288 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 



on the Alresford stream. The air was crowded with them, and 

 the surface of the water covered. Large trouts sucked them in 

 as they lay struggling on the surface of the stream, unable to 

 rise till their wings were dried. 



This appearance reconciled me in some measure to the won- 

 derful account that Scopoli gives of the quantities emerging from 

 the rivers of Carniola. Their motions are very peculiar, up and 

 down for many yards almost in a perpendicular line.* 



SPHYNX OCELLATA.f 



A VAST insect appears after it is dusk, flying with a humming 

 noise, and inserting its tongue into the bloom of the honey- 

 suckle ; it scarcely settles upon the plants, but feeds on the wing 

 in the manner of humming birds. J 



WILD BEE. 



THERE is a sort of wild bee frequenting the garden-campion for 

 the sake of its tomentum, which probably it turns to some pur- 

 pose in the business of nidification. It is very pleasant to see 

 with what address it strips off the pubes, running from the top 

 to the bottom of a branch, and shaving it bare with all the dex- 

 terity of a hoop-shaver. When it has got a vast bundle, almost 

 as large as itself, it flies away, holding it secure between its chin 

 and its fore legs. 



There is a remarkable hill on the downs near Lewes in Sus- 

 sex, known by the name of Mount Carburn, which overlooks 

 that town, and affords a most engaging prospect of all the 

 country round, besides several views of the sea. On the very 

 summit of this exalted promontory, and amidst the trenches of 



* 1 once saw a swarm of these insects playing up and down over the surface of a pond in Denn 

 park, exactly in the manner described by this accurate naturalist. It was late in the evening of 

 a warm summer's day when I observed them.* MARKWICK. 



t Smerintkus ocellatus, a species by no means uncommon. ED. 



t I have frequently seen the large bee moth, sphinx stellatarum, inserting its long tongue or 

 proboscis into the centre of flowers, and feeding on their nectar, without settling on them, but 

 keeping constantly on the wing.f MARKWICK. 



* T have noticed them in particular abundance over theCroydon canal, where it passes through 

 Penge Common, Kent. ED. 



t Macroglossa stellatarum. Decidedly one of the most interesting of our native lepidoptcra, 

 though dusky in its hues, having the manners of the gorgeous humming birds of the western 

 world. These insects are, I fancy, every where more abundant near the sea-side. 1 have picked 

 up the caterpillar upon turf, and it has undergone the whole period of its pupation with me 

 n about five weeks. ED. 



