222 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE, 
alighted. My annuals were discolored with them, and the 
stalks of a bed of onions were quite coated over for six days 
after. ‘These armies were then, no doubt, in a state of emi- 
gration, and shifting their quarters; and might have come, as 
far as we know, from the great hop plantations of Kent or 
Sussex, the wind being all that day in the easterly quarter. 
They were observed at the same time in great clouds about 
Farnham, and all along the vale from Farnham to Alton. 
LETTER XLIX. 
When I happen to visit a family where gold and silver 
fishes are kept in a glass bowl, I am always pleased with the 
occurrence, because it offers me an opportunity of observing 
the actions and propensities of those beings with whom we 
can be little acquainted in their natural state. Not long since 
I spent a fortnight at the house of a friend where there was 
such a vivary, to which I paid no small attention, taking 
every occasion to remark what passed within its narrow 
limits. It was here that I first observed the manner in which 
fishes die. As soon as the creature sickens, the head sinks 
lower and lower, and it stands as it were on its head; till, 
getting weaker, and losing all poise, the tail turns over, and 
at last it floats on the surface of the water with its belly upper- 
most. The reason why fishes, when dead, swim in that 
manner is very obvious; because, when the body is no longer 
balanced by the fins of the belly, the broad muscular back 
preponderates by its own gravity, and turns the belly upper- © 
most, as lighter from its being a cavity, and because it contains 
the swimming-bladders, which contribute to render it buoyant. 
Some that delight in gold and silver fishes have adopted a 
notion that they need no aliment. ‘True it is that they will 
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