another, and disengage their hollow caps from the slippery surface.

Upon the same principle that flies stick and support themselves, do boys, by way of play, carry heavy weights by only a piece of wet leather at the end of a string clapped close on the surface of a stone.

TIPULE, OR EMPIDES.

MAY. Millions of Empides, or Tipula, come forth at the close of day, and swarm to such a degree as to fill the air. At this juncture they sport and copulate; as it grows more dark they retire. All day they hide in the hedges. As they rise in a cloud they appear like smoke.

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

ANTS.

AUGUST 23. Every ant hill about this time is in a strange hurry and confusion; and all the winged ants, agitated by some violent impulse, are leaving their homes, and, bent on emigration, swarm by myriads in the air, to the great emolument of the Hirundines, which fare luxuriously. Those that escape the swallows return no more to their nests, but, looking out for fresh settlements, lay a foundation for future colonies. All the females at this time are pregnant: the males that escape being eaten wander away and die.

October 2. Flying ants, male and female, usually swarm and migrate on hot sunny days in August and September; but this day a vast emigration took place in my garden, and myriads came forth, in appearance, from the drain which goes under the fruit wall; filling the air and the adjoining trees and shrubs with their numbers. The females were full of eggs. This late swarming is probably owing to the backward, wet

season.

be seen.

The day following, not one flying ant was to

Horse ants travel home to their nests laden with flies, which they have caught, and the aurelia of smaller ants, which they seize by violence 18.

GLOW-WORms.

By observing two glow-worms which were brought from the field to the bank in the garden, it appeared to us, that these little creatures put out their lamps between eleven and twelve, and shine no more for the rest of the night.

Male glow-worms, attracted by the light of the candles, come into the parlour.

EARTHWORMS.

EARTHWORMS make their casts most in mild weather about March and April; they do not lie torpid in winter, but come forth when there is no frost; they travel about in rainy nights, as appears from their sinuous tracks on the soft muddy soil, perhaps in search of food.

When earthworms lie out a nights on the turf, though they extend their bodies a great way, they do not quite leave their holes, but keep the ends of their tails fixed therein, so that on the least alarm they can retire with

Is In my Naturalist's Calendar for the year 1777, on September 6th, I find the following note to the article Flying Ants:

I saw a prodigious swarm of these ants flying about the top of some tall elm trees close by my house; some were continually dropping to the ground as if from the trees, and others rising up from the ground: many of them were pairing; and I imagine their life is but short, for as soon as produced from the egg by the heat of the sun, they propagate their species, and soon after perish. They were black, somewhat like the small black ant, and had four wings. I saw also, at another place, a large sort which were yellowish. On the 8th of September, 1785, I again observed the same circumstance of a vast number of these insects flying near the tops of the elms and dropping to the ground.

On the 2nd of March, 1777, I saw great numbers of ants come out of the ground.-MARKWICK.

precipitation under the earth. Whatever food falls within their reach when thus extended, they seem to be content with, such as blades of grass, straws, fallen leaves, the ends of which they often draw into their holes; even when pairing their hinder parts never quit their holes so that no two, except they lie within reach of each other's bodies, can pair; but as every individual is an hermaphrodite, there is no difficulty in meeting with a mate, as would be the case were they of different sexes.

SNAILS, AND SLUGS.

THE shell-less snails called slugs are in motion all the winter in mild weather, and commit great depredations on garden plants, and much injure the green wheat, the loss of which is imputed to earthworms; while the shelled snail, the Pepɛonos, does not come forth at all till about April 10th, and not only lays itself up pretty early in autumn, in places secure from frost, but also throws out round the mouth of its shell a thick operculum formed from its own saliva; so that it is perfectly secured, and corked up as it were, from all inclemencies. The cause why the slugs are able to endure the cold so much better than shell snails is, that their bodies are covered with slime as whales are with blubber.

Snails pair about Midsummer; and soon after deposit their eggs in the mould by running their heads and bodies underground. Hence the way to be rid of them is to kill as many as possible before they begin to breed.

Large, gray, shell-less, cellar snails lay themselves up about the same time with those that live abroad; hence it is plain that a defect of warmth is not the only cause that influences their retreat.

SNAKES' SLOUGH.

"There the snake throws her enamell'd skin."
SHAKSPEARE, Mids. Night's Dream.

ABOUT the middle of this month (September) we found in a field near a hedge the slough of a large snake, which seemed to have been newly cast. From circumstances it appeared as if turned wrong side outward, and as drawn off backward, like a stocking or woman's glove. Not only the whole skin, but scales from the very eyes, are peeled off, and appear in the head of the slough like a pair of spectacles. The reptile, at the time of changing his coat, had entangled himself intricately in the grass and weeds, so that the friction of the stalks and blades might promote this curious shifting of his exuviæ.

It would be a most entertaining sight could a person be an eye-witness to such a feat, and see the snake in the act of changing his garment. As the convexity of the scales of the eyes in the slough is now inward, that circumstance alone is a proof that the skin has been turned not to mention that now the present inside is much darker than the outer. If you look through the scales of the snake's eyes from the concave side, viz. as the reptile used them, they lessen objects much. Thus it appears from what has been said, that snakes crawl out of the mouth of their own sloughs, and quit the tail part last, just as eels are skinned by a cook maid. While the scales of the eyes are growing loose, and a new skin is forming, the creature, in appearance, must be blind, and feel itself in an awkward uneasy situation 19.

19 I have seen many sloughs or skins of snakes entire, after they have cast them off; and once in particular I remember to have found one of

OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES.

479

TREES, ORDER OF LOSING THEIR LEAVES.

ONE of the first trees that becomes naked is the walnut: the mulberry, the ash, especially if it bears many keys, and the horse-chestnut, come next. All lopped trees, while their heads are young, carry their leaves a long while. Apple-trees and peaches remain green till very late, often till the end of November: young beeches never cast their leaves till spring, till the new leaves sprout and push them off: in the autumn the beechen leaves turn of a deep chestnut colour. Tall beeches cast their leaves about the end of October.

these sloughs so intricately interwoven amongst some brakes that it was with difficulty removed without being broken: this undoubtedly was done by the creature to assist in getting rid of its incumbrance.

I have great reason to suppose that the eft or common lizard also casts its skin or slough, but not entire like the snake; for on the 30th of March, 1777, I saw one with something ragged hanging to it, which appeared to be part of its old skin*.-MARKWICK.

I have often seen caterpillars in the act of changing their skins, and of throwing off the skin and becoming chrysalides; and also the fly in the act of coming forth. The skin is thrown off by a wriggling motion of the body, beginning from the head: the fly breaks through by quick and sharp exertion of the legs; the wings of the moth and butterfly are in miniature when they come forth; they immediately climb to a situation where by position the wings hang down, and the wings quickly grow to their full size and become rigid. If they are prevented from reaching such a situation, or dislodged before the wings are full grown and stiffened, they will remain rumpled and unserviceable.-W. H.