hard weather; and the holes they pick in these roots greatly damage the crop. From this food their flesh has contracted a rancidness which occasions them to be rejected by nicer judges of eating, who thought them before a delicate dish. They were shot not only as they were feeding in the fields, and especially in snowy weather, but also at the close of the evening, by men who lay in ambush among the woods and groves to kill them as they came in to roost.* These are the principal circumstances relating to this wonderful internal migration, which with us takes place towards the end of November, and ceases early in the spring. Last winter we had, in Selborne High-wood, about an hundred of these doves; but in former times the flocks were so vast, not only with us, but all the district around, that on mornings and evenings they traversed the air, like rooks, in strings, reaching for a mile together. When they thus rendezvoused here by thousands, if they happened to be suddenly roused from their roost-trees on an evening, Their rising all at once was like the sound Of thunder heard remote. It will by no means be foreign to the present purpose to add, that I had a relation in this neighbourhood who made it a practice for a time, whenever he could procure the eggs of a ring-dove, to place them under a pair of doves that were sitting in his own pigeon-house, hoping thereby, if he could bring about a coalition, to enlarge his breed, and teach his own doves to beat out into the woods, and to support themselves by mast. The plan was plausible, but something always interrupted the success; for though the birds were usually hatched, and sometimes grew to half their size, yet none ever arrived at maturity. I myself have seen these foundlings in their nest displaying a strange ferocity of nature, so as scarcely to bear to be looked at, and snapping with their bills by way of menace. In short, they always died, perhaps for want of proper sustenance; but the owner thought that by their fierce and wild demeanour they frighted their foster-mothers, and so were starved. Virgil, as a familiar occurrence, by way of simile, describes a dove haunting the cavern of a rock, in such engaging numbers, that I cannot refrain from quoting the passage; and Some old sportsmen say, that the main part of these flocks used to withdraw as soon as the heavy Christmas frosts were over. John Dryden has rendered it so happily in our language, that without farther excuse, I shall add his translation also: Qualis spelunca subitò commota columba, Cui domus, et dulces latebroso in pumice nidi, As when the dove her rocky hold forsakes, LETTER XCV. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE, September 3, 1781 I HAVE now read your Miscellanies through with much care and satisfaction; and am to return you my best thanks for the honourable mention made in them of me as a naturalist, which I wish I may deserve. In some former letters, I expressed my suspicions that many of the house-martens do not depart in the winter far from this village. I therefore determined to make some search about the south-east end of the hill, where I imagined they might slumber out the uncomfortable months of winter. But supposing that the examination would be made to the best advantage in the spring, and observing that no martens had appeared by the 11th of April last, on that day I employed some men to explore the shrubs and cavities of the suspected spot. The persons took pains, but without any success; however, a remarkable incident occurred in the midst of our pursuit,while the labourers were at work, a house-marten, the first that had been seen this year, came down the village in the sight of several people, and went at once into a nest, where it staid a short time, and then flew over the houses; for some days after, no martens were observed, not till the 16th of April, and then only a pair. Martens in general were remarkably late this year.* *These early birds may be such as have hastened hither, by coming within the range of a favouring gale of wind. — Ep. LETTER XCVI. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE, September 9, 1781. I HAVE just met with a circumstance respecting swifts, which furnishes an exception to the whole tenor of my observations ever since I have bestowed any attention on that species of hirundines. Our swifts, in general, withdrew this year about the first day of August, all save one pair, which in two or three days was reduced to a single bird. The perseverance of this individual made me suspect that the strongest of motives, that of an attachment to her young, could alone occasion so late a stay. I watched therefore till the twenty-fourth of August, and then discovered that, under the eaves of the church, she attended upon two young, which were fledged, and now put out their white chins from a crevice. These remained till the twenty-seventh, looking more alert every day, and seeming to long to be on the wing. After this day, they were missing at once; nor could I ever observe them with their dam coursing round the church in the act of learning to fly, as the first broods evidently do. On the thirty-first, I caused the eaves to be searched; but we found in the nest only two callow, dead, stinking swifts, on which a second nest had been formed. This double nest was full of the black shining cases of the hippobosca hirundinis. The following remarks on this unusual incident are obvious: The first is, that though it be disagreeable to swifts to remain beyond the beginning of August, yet that they can subsist longer is undeniable. The second is, that this uncommon event, as it was owing to the loss of the first brood, so it corroborates my former remark, that swifts breed regularly but once; since, was the contrary the case, the occurrence above could neither be new nor rare. P.S. One swift was seen at Lyndon, in the county of Rutland, in 1782, so late as the 3d of September. LETTER XCVII. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. As I have sometimes known you make inquiries about several kinds of insects, I shall here send you an account of one sort which I little expected to have found in this kingdom. I had often observed that one particular part of a vine, growing on the walls of my house, was covered in the autumn with a black, dust-like appearance, on which the flies fed eagerly; and that the shoots and leaves thus affected did not thrive, nor did the fruit ripen. To this substance I applied my glasses, but could not discover that it had any thing to do with animal life, as I at first expected; but upon a closer examination behind the larger boughs, we were surprised to find that they were coated over with husky shells, from whose sides proceeded a cotton-like substance, surrounding a multitude of eggs. This curious and uncommon production put me upon recollecting what I have heard and read concerning the coccus vitis vinifera of Linnæus, which, in the south of Europe, infests many vines, and is a horrid and loathsome pest. As soon as I had turned to the accounts given of this insect, I saw at once that it swarmed on my vine: and did not appear to have been at all checked by the preceding winter, which had been uncommonly severe. Not being then at all aware that it had any thing to do with England, I was much inclined to think that it came from Gibraltar, among the many boxes and packages of plants and birds which I had formerly received from thence; and especially as the vine infested grew immediately under my study window, where I usually kept my specimens.* True it is, that I had received nothing from thence for some years: but as insects, we know, are conveyed from one country to another in a very unexpected manner, and have a wonderful power of maintaining their existence till they fall into a nidus proper * Most of the species of coccus, which are found in and infest the green-houses and conservatories of Britain, have been introduced with exotic plants. They are now very common in this country, and are a very prolific race. The females fix themselves, and tenaciously and immoveably adhere, to the branches of plants. Some of them lose entirely the form of insects: their bodies swell, their skin stretches, and becomes smooth, and they so closely resemble some of the galls, or excrescences, found on plants, as to be taken for such by people unacquainted with the subject. After this change, the abdomen serves only as a kind of shell, or covering, under which the eggs are concealed. Others, although they are also thus fixed, preserve their insect form till they have laid their eggs, and then die. A kind of downy substance grows on their abdomen, which serves for the formation of the nest in which they deposit their eggs. The males differ considerably from the females, being provided with wings, and are small, but very active insects. It is from one of this tribe, the coecus cacti, or American cochineal, that the celebrated red dye called cochineal is made. - ED. for their support and increase, I cannot but suspect still that these cocci came to me originally from Andalusia. Yet, all the while, candour obliges me to confess, that Mr Lightfoot has written me word, that he once, and but once, saw these insects on a vine at Weymouth, in Dorsetshire; which, it is here to be observed, is a seaport town to which the coccus might be conveyed by shipping. As many of my readers may possibly never have heard of this strange and unusual insect, I shall here transcribe a passage from a Natural History of Gibraltar, written by the Reverend John White, late vicar of Blackburn, in Lancashire, but not yet published: : "In the year 1770, a vine, which grew on the east side of my house, and which had produced the finest crops of grapes for years past, was suddenly overspread, on all the woody branches, with large lumps of a white fibrous substance, resembling spiders' webs, or rather raw cotton. It was of a very clammy quality, sticking fast to every thing that touched it, and capable of being spun into long threads. At first I suspected it to be the product of spiders, but could find none. Nothing was to be seen connected with it, but many brown oval husky shells, which by no means looked like insects, but rather resembled bits of the dry bark of the vine. The tree had a plentiful crop of grapes set, when this pest appeared upon it; but the fruit was manifestly injured by this foul encumbrance. It remained all the summer, still increasing, and loaded the woody and bearing branches to a vast degree. I often pulled off great quantities by handfuls; but it was so slimy and tenacious that it could by no means be cleared. The grapes never filled to their natural perfection, but turned watery and vapid. Upon perusing the works afterwards of M. de Reaumur, I found this matter perfectly described and accounted for. Those husky shells which I had observed, were no other than the female coccus, from whose sides this cotton-like substance exudes, and serves as a covering and security for their eggs," To this account I think proper to add, that, though the female cocci are stationary, and seldom remove from the place to which they stick, yet the male is a winged insect; and that the black dust which I saw was undoubtedly the excrement of the females, which is eaten by ants as well as flies. Though the utmost severity of our winter did not destroy these insects, |