OF SELBORNE. 
211 
and imperceptibly make amazing havoc in the fiekl and 
garden. 
Farmer Young, of ]^orton farm, says that this spring (1777) 
about four acres of his wheat in one field was entirely destroyed 
by shigs, which swarmed on the blades of corn, and devoured it 
as it sprang. 
These hints we think proper to throw out in order to set the 
inquisitive and discerning to work. 
A good monography of worms would afford much entertain- 
ment and information at the same time, and w^ould open a large 
and new field in natural history. Worms work most in the 
spring; but by no means lie torpid in the dead months; they 
are out every mild night in the winter, as any person may 
satisfy himself They are hermaphrodites, and are, conse- 
quently, very prolific. 
Selborne, May 20, 1777. 
LETTER LXXVni. 
TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARHTNGTON, 
You cannot but remember that tlie 26th and 27th of last 
March were very hot days ; so sultry that everybody complained, 
and were restless under those sensfitions to which they had 
not been reconciled by gradual approaclies. 
This sudden summer-like heat was attended by many summer 
coincidences ; for on those two days the thermometer rose to 
sixty-six in the shade ; many species of insects revived and 
came forth ; some bees swarmed in this neighbourhood ; the old 
tortoise, near Lewes in Sussex, awakened and came forth out of 
its dormitory; and, what is most to my present purpose, many 
house-swallows appeared, and were very alert in many places, 
and particularly at Cobham, in Surrey. 
But as that short warm period was succeeded as well as pre- 
ceded by harsh severe weather, with frequent frosts and ice, and 
cutting winds, the insects withdrew, the tortoise returned again 
p 2 
