Page:White - The natural history of Selborne, and the naturalist's calendar, 1879.djvu/443

Rh retire. All day they hide in the hedges. As they rise in a cloud they appear like smoke.

I do not remember to have seen such swarms, except in the fens of the Isle of Ely. They appear most over grass grounds.—.

On the 1st August, about half an hour after three in the afternoon, the people of Selborne were surprised by a shower of aphides which fell in these parts. They who were walking in the streets at that time found themselves covered with these insects, which settled also on the trees and gardens, and blackened all the vegetables where they alighted. These armies, no doubt, were then in a state of emigration, and shifting their quarters; and might perhaps come from the great hop-plantations of Kent or Sussex, the wind being that day at north. They were observed at the same time at Farnham, and all along the vale to Alton.—.



(The lines under the figure show the actual size.)

August 23rd.—Every ant-hill about this time is a strange hurry