Page:White - The natural history of Selborne, and the naturalist's calendar, 1879.djvu/431

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OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES.
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that has haunted Hartley Wood for so long a time. Many hundreds of people, horse and foot, attended the dogs to see the deer unharboured; but though the huntsmen drew Hartley Wood, and Long Coppice, and Shrubwood, and Temple Hangers, and in their way back Hartley and Wardle-ham Hangers, yet no stag could be found.

The royal pack, accustomed to have the deer turned out before them, never drew the coverts with any address and spirit, as many people that were present observed; and this remark the event has proved to be a true one. For as a person was lately pursuing a pheasant that was wing-broken in Hartley Wood, he stumbled upon the stag by accident, and ran in upon him as he lay concealed amidst a thick brake of brambles and bushes.—White.



OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. .


INSECTS IN GENERAL.

The day and night insects occupy the annuals alternately; the papilios, muscæ, and apes, are succeeded at the close of day by phalænæ, earwigs, woodlice, etc. In the dusk of the evening, when beetles begin to buz, partridges begin to call; these two circumstances are exactly coincident.

Ivy is the last flower that supports the hymenopterous and dipterous insects. On sunny days quite on to November they swarm on trees covered with this plant; and when they disappear, probably retire under the shelter of its leaves, concealing themselves between its fibres and the trees which it entwines.[1]White.

This I have often observed, having seen bees and other winged

  1. The ivy is haunted at night by swarms of moths and other insects. I have seen an ivy bush, on a warm summer night, literally moving with the number of moths which were feeding on it. The eyes of the larger ones glowed like sparks of fire.