HUMMINGS IN THE AIR. 
250 
observance of local facts, though unimportant in them- 
selves, may at times elucidate perplexities, or strengthen 
conclusions. 
That purely rural, little noticed, and indeed local 
occurrence, called by the country people “ hummings 
in the air,” is annually to be heard in one or two fields 
near my dwelling. About the middle of the day, per- 
haps from twelve o’clock till two, on a few calm, sultry 
days, in July, we occasionally hear, when in particular 
places, the humming of apparently a large swarm of 
bees. It is generally in some spacious, open spot, that 
this murmuring first arrests our attention. As we move 
onward the sound becomes fainter, and by degrees is no 
longer audible. That this sound proceeds from a col- 
lection of bees, or some such insects, high in the air, 
there can be no doubt ; yet the musicians are invisible. 
At these times a solitary insect or so may be observed 
here and there, occupied in its usual employ, but this 
creature takes no part in our aerial orchestra. We in- 
vestigators, who endeavor to find a reason and a cause 
for all things, are a little puzzled sometimes in our pur- 
suits, like other people; and, perhaps, would have but 
little success in attempting an elucidation of this occur- 
rence, which, with those circles in our pastures and on 
our lawns, that produce such crops of fungi (agaricus 
oreades), and are called by the common name, for want 
of a better or more significant one, of “ fairy rings,” 
we will leave as we find them, an odium physiolo - 
gicum. 
1827.- — The winds of this autumn have been violent 
and distressing, but of all variable things, we know of 
none more so than our seasons and temperatures, pro- 
duced probably by causes and combinations of which 
we have no comprehension, or power of foreseeing, 
“ for these things come not by observation ; we cannot 
say, Lo here ! or Lo there ! ” What can be more extra- 
ordinary, or inexplicable by table or computation, than 
the sudden visitation, in the midst of storms and frosts, 
of such a day of brightness and warmth as we some- 
times witness, cheering the aspect of all things,— a 
portrait of summer, brought from we know not what 
