MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 373 
two or three hours without ceasing, and commences in 
fine clear weather about an hour betore sun-set, lasting 
till the copious falling of the dew compels them to retire 
to their nocturnal station?. Our most common species, 
which I have usually taken for the E. vulgata, varies 
from that of De Geer in its proceedings. - I found them 
at the end of May dancing over the meadows, not over 
the trees, ata much earlier hour—at half-past three— 
rising in the way just described, about a foot, and then 
descending, at the distance of about four or five feet 
from the ground. Another species, common here, rises 
seven or eight feet. I have also seen Ephemere flying 
over the water in a horizontal direction. The females 
are sometimes in the air, when the males seize them, and 
they fly paired. ‘These insects seem to use their fore 
legs to break the air; they are applied together before 
the head, and look like antennsee.—Empis maura, a little 
beaked fly, I have observed rushing in infinite numbers 
like a shower of rain driven by the wind, as before ob- 
served>, over waters, and then returning back. 
It is remarkable that the smaller T¢pulide will fly un- 
wetted in a heavy shower of rain, as I have often ob- 
served. How keen must be their sight, and how rapid 
their motions, to enable them to steer between drops 
bigger than their own bodies, which, if they fell upon 
them, must dash them to the ground ! 
Amidst this infinite variety of motions, for purposes 
so numerous and diversified, and performed by such a 
multiplicity of instruments and organs, who does not 
" De Geer, ii. 638—. » See above, p. 7. 
