206 OUR LADY OF THE NETTLES 



falcon, distinguished as such by its long pointed wings, 

 the notch on the upper part of the beak, and the dark- 

 brown iris, while the sparrow-hawk displays the in- 

 signia of its clan, namely, shorter rounded wings, a notch- 

 less beak, and a yellow iris. 



XXXVII 



Few natural phenomena defy forecast more success- 

 our Lady of frdty tQan ^ e effect of seasonal temperature 

 the Netties anc j ra infall upon certain forms of insect life. 

 A hard winter is popularly believed to destroy a vast 

 quantity of creeping and flying things in the larval and 

 pupal stages ; yet, for the life of me, I have never been 

 able to connect cause and effect in this matter. The 

 severest winter probably since the Crimean one of 

 1854-5 was that of 1894-5. Even on our mild western 

 seaboard the mercury fell below zero Fahrenheit ; and 

 not only so, but the frost endured without intermission 

 from the middle of January to the middle of March, so 

 that the surface soil, with all its living contents, was 

 frozen hard to a depth of many inches. What was the 

 result ? A surprising one to myself and many other 

 honest anglers who were fully prepared for a dearth of 

 ephemerid and other flies acceptable to trout, for the 

 rivers were icebound for nine consecutive weeks. I was 

 joint tenant of a fishing on the Itchen at that time, and 

 seldom have I seen the rise of such flies so copious or 

 so frequent as it was in the summer of 1896. 



In like manner it is impossible to predict from the 

 numbers of queen wasps in spring what may be the 



