called Oistros and Asilus by the Ancients. 355 
particular kind of harsh humming noise (yor Bou£udn rod xa} 
roay). The warp, on the other hand, he says is like the fly 
called by the Greeks zwouue ; and although it makes a louder 
hum than the oiezgos, he states that it has a smaller sting. 
If we now turn to the poets, we shall find that their account of 
this insect tallies perfectly with the above description of the an- 
cient naturalists, but not at all with the modern genus (Estrus. 
Homer describes his CEstrus as é&uônos, a word which applies 
admirably to the most common of all Tabanide, namely the Taba- 
nus pluvialis of Linneeus, as well as to the insects which now form 
the genus Chrysops. And the Scholiast, after stating that the 
oirreos and van) are very near in affinity, says that the latter differs 
in having a smaller sting in the mouth, and in being subæneous 
in respect to its aspect or facies (vroyarxov räv wog@rr), thus evi- 
dently pointing, as I think, to the difference which exists between 
the modern genera Tabanus and Hematopota, the latter having 
much more splendid eyes. That Homer's insect was not the 
modern Œstrus may besides be inferred from what he says of the 
season in which it makes its appearance, 
CE py èv sapiwi, bre T Hara Wap nérovrai” 
for there are few cases, I believe, of the modern Œstri appearing 
earlier than the middle of July. And this circumstance, by the 
way, leads also to the conclusion, that the English breese or brize 
is not the modern Œstrus, although it is generally understood so 
to signify in the following punning lines of Shakespeare : 
* Cleopatra, 
The breeze upon her, like a cow in June, 
Hoists sail and flies." 
Now Mouffet, who, both as an entomological observer and as 
a contemporary of Shakespeare, was likely to know the insect 
then named Prize, says expressly that the breeze, clegs, clingez 
VOL. XIV. 3A and 
