IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 9 
the east. They were observed at the same time in great 
clouds about Farnham, and all along the vale from Farn- 
ham to Alton?. A similar emigration of these flies I 
once witnessed, to my great annoyance, when travelling 
later in the year, in the Isle of Ely. The air was so 
full of them, that they were incessantly flying into my 
eyes, nostrils, &c.; and my clothes were covered by 
them. And in 1814, in the autumn, the Aphides were 
so abundant for a few days in the vicinity of Ipswich, 
as to be noticed with surprise by the most incurious 
observers. 
As the locust-eating thrush (Zwrdus gryllivorus, L.) 
accompanies the locusts, so the Coccinella: seem to pur- 
sue the Aphides; for I know no other reason to assign 
for the vast number that are sometimes, especially in the 
autumn, to be met with on the sea-coast or the banks of 
large rivers. Many years ago, those of the Humber 
were so thickly strewed with the common Lady-bird 
(C. septempunctata, L.), that it was difficult to avoid 
treading upon them. Some years afterwards I noticed 
a mixture of species, collected in vast numbers, on the 
sand-hills on the sea-shore, at the north-west extremity 
of Norfolk. My friend the Rev. Peter Lathbury made 
long since a similar observation at Orford, on the Suffolk 
coast; and about five or six years ago they covered the 
cliffs, as I have before remarked>, of all the watering- 
places on the Kentish and Sussex coasts, to the no small 
alarm of the superstitious, who thought them forerunners 
of some direful evil. These last probably emigrated with 
the Aphides from the hop-grounds. Whether the latter 
and their devourers cross the sea has not been ascer- 
a Nat. Hist. ii. 101. » Vor. I. 4th Ed. 263, 
