MUSCLE, TIPUL^E, APHIDES. 291 



MUSCLE. FLIES. 



IN the decline of the year, when the mornings and evenings 

 become chilly, many species of flies (muscce) retire into houses, 

 and swarm in the windows. 



At first they are very brisk and alert ; but as they grow more 

 torpid, one cannot help observing that they move with difficulty, 

 and are scarce able to lift their legs, which seem as if glued to 

 the glass ; and by degrees many do actually stick on till they 

 die in the place. 



It has been observed that divers flies, besides their sharp 

 hooked nails, have also skinny palms, or flaps to their feet, 

 whereby they are enabled to stick on glass and other smooth 

 bodies, and to walk on ceilings with their backs downward, by 

 means of the pressure of 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 re- 

 sistance becomes too mighty for their diminished strength ; and 

 we see flies labouring along, and lugging their feet in windows 

 as if they stuck fast to the glass, and it is with the utmost diffi- 

 culty 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 them- 

 selves, 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. 



TIPUI^E, OR EMPEDES. 



MAY Millions of empedes, or tipulce, 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 ever remember to have seen such swarms, except 

 in the fens of the Isle of Ely. They appear most over grass 

 grounds. 



APHIDES. 



ON the 1st of August, about half an hour after three in the 

 afternoon, the people of Selborne were surprised by a shower of 



