My annuals were
discoloured 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 emigration, 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.*
(* For various methods by which several insects shift their quarters,
see Derham's Physico-Theology.)
Letter LIV
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Dear Sir,
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.
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