THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 183 
silently and imperceptibly make amazing havoc in the field 
and garden. | 
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 would 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: are 
out every mild night in the winter, as any person may be con- 
vinced that will take the pains to examine his grass-plots with 
a candle. 
LErreR XXXII. 
SELBORNE, Nov. 22nd, 1777. 
You cannot but remember that the 26th and 27th of last 
March were very hot days,—so sultry that everybody com- 
plained and were restless under those sensations to which they 
had not been reconciled by gradual approaches. 
This sudden summer-like heat was attended by many sum- 
mer coincidences ; for on those two days the thermometer rose 
to 66° in the shade; many species of insects revived and came 
forth; some bees swarmed in this neighborhood; 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 Chobham, 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 retired 
1 Farmer Young, of Norton Farm, says, that this spring (1777) about 
four acres of his wheat in one field were entirely destroyed by slugs, which 
swarmed on the blades of corn, and devoured it as fast as it sprang. 
4 W: : 
