e mention
an emigration of small aphides, which was observed in the village of
Selborne no longer ago than August 1st, 1785.

About three o'clock in the afternoon of that day, which was very hot, the
people of this village were surprised by a shower of aphides, or smother-
flies, which fell in these parts. Those that were walking in the street
at that juncture found themselves covered with these insects, which
settled also on the hedges and gardens, blackening all the vegetables
where they alighted. 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.

LETTER LIV.

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. 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 uppermost. 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 uppermost, 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 subsist for a long time without any apparent food but what they
can collect from pure water frequently changed; yet they must draw some
support from animalcula, and other nourishment supplied