4T^ THE DAY FLY. 



jTiales impregnated, and the eggs depoflted ; and thefe 

 funftions are no fooner over, than the aftive beings who 

 performed them finiih their operations for ever *. 



On the banks of the Sicne and the Marnc, in the vici- 

 nity of Paris, the ephemerae exhibit a fingular fueftacle 

 for fome days about the middle of Augvft. For feveral 

 hours after funfet, they rife in fuch vail; multitudes, that 

 they appear like the flakes preffing upon each other in a 

 heavy fall of fnow. By and by, the whole fiirface of 

 the earth is covered with the fwarms that have fallen 

 upon it, after having finifhed their fiiort exiflcuce. 



The chryfalids that remain under the water begin t]icir 

 transformation in the evening, and complete it by eight 

 or nine o'clock ; an ope ration painful and dirjicult to 

 other infc6ls, is with them periormed with great celerity 

 and apparent eafe. No fooner has the chryfalis reached 

 the top of the water, than its prifon burfts open, and the 

 wmged ephemera foars into the air. Millions after mil- 

 lions are thus conftantly taking wing, till the air becomes 

 darkened with their numbers : They are in that element 

 but an inftant, when abundant fhowers of them fall bacii^ 

 to the ground. 



The females, after their fall, are bufy in performing 

 the lafl funftion of their lives, which is, depcliting their 

 eggs. Such as have dropped upon the ground leave them 

 there ; while thcfe that have tumbled into the river pro- 

 duce two feparate clufters of ova, each containing no lefs 

 than three hundred and fifty. All this is the work only 

 of a moment ; for other infefts are not fooner delivered 

 of a fingle egg, than the ephexnera of feven hundred. 



Some 

 % 

 « 

 * Reaumur, Tome VLp. 43. Pret 



