190 MULTITUDES ON GRASS. 



quartering their groundwdth the skill of a trained setter. 

 The e\'ident object of their search was the females, 

 who, in the proportion of about one to fifty of their 

 partners, were sitting sluggishly on the stems of the 

 grass. I contined my walk for about three hundred 

 yards, without perceiving any diminution of numbers. 

 I then measured off a square foot, and counted with- 

 in that space thirty- seven, and they did not appear 

 thicker in that spot than in others. Though the 

 species is still abundant in the season, I have never 

 since witnessed an assemblage like this." * 



Supposing that Mr. Haliday could see the " innu- 

 merable sparkles of light over the short herbage," for 

 only twelve or thirteen yards on each side of him, 

 the breadth of the space occupied by these insects 

 would be tv/enty-five yards : as he walked " about 

 three hundred yards without perceiving any diminu- 

 tion of numbers," we may suppose that they extended 

 to at least a hundred yards further. The length 

 multiplied by the breadth, and reduced to square feet, 

 would give 90,000, and as a square foot, when they did 

 not appear more numerous in that spot than in others, 

 contained thirty- seven, the total number of insects 

 would be three millions three hundred and thirty 

 thousand. Perhaps, however, from the limited space 



* Catalo;^e of Dii)tera occuring about HoWywood.— Entomological 

 Magazine, No. ii. p. 179. 



