310 OBSERVATIONS ON WORMS. 



concealed themselves amongst the leaves. Also, 

 when attention had been attracted towards them 

 by the occurrence of others in such numbers on 

 the ground, they might readily be perceived, when 

 but for this circumstance they would have passed 

 unobserved. The fact of their having been ob- 

 tained at such elevations is quite certain. Mr. 

 Vines was so good as to take me into his garden, 

 and to point out the exact spots in which he 

 found them ; and everything he stated was con- 

 firmed by the testimony of a second person, who 

 was employed as a labourer in the garden and at 

 work when I called. Possibly such a phenomenon 

 may be more frequent than is supposed ; though I 

 am not aware of more than a slight notice of it, 

 in one previous instance, in this country.* If so, 

 the recording of it in this instance may have the 

 effect of leading naturalists to look out for, and 

 to discover, other instances of its occurrence in 

 their own neighbourhood. They will also be di- 

 rected by the foregoing details to the particular 

 points requiring further examination ; and be en- 



* " On Tuesday, June 19, after a very heavy storm, an extraor- 

 dinary phenomenon was observed at the Buckhold Wood, Lydart, 

 Troy Park, and other places in the neighbourhood of Monmouth. 

 The ground and trees were covered with myriads of live snake-like 

 insects, quantities of which were collected by different persons. 

 They are six or seven inches in length, about the thickness of a 

 horse-hair, white, and quite transparent." Mag. of Nat. Hist. 

 vol. ix. p. 241, quoted from the Literary Gazette of June 23, 

 1832. The worms in this instance were erroneously referred to 

 the Gordius aquaticus. 



