406 Mr. Bracy Crank on the Insect 
And again in an old Play, quoted by Archdeacon Nares in his 
Glossary, the following use of the word occurs, 
“I will put the Brize in’s tail, shall set him gadding presently.” 
Now if MacLeay or Latreille, who entertains a similar opi- 
nion, had ever been as much among cattle on the heaths, as my 
pursuits have led me, they would have long since obtained a 
practical acquaintance with the effects produced by these insects, 
and would not have been led to suppose that the T'abani, Co- 
nopses, or Culices, were the object of poetic description, or have 
made any mistake between the effects of one and the other. 
When the Tabani and Conopses have come and settled in great 
numbers on the back and sides of the animal, he would, as I 
have often witnessed, scarcely regard them. A toss of the head, 
perhaps, towards the part, if they sucked a little too vigorously ; 
or, if they were still more importunate, a lash of the tail, was in 
general all the notice he would condescend to take of them. But 
if an Œstrus approached, the consternation was indescribable, 
and the agitation most remarkable; and the object attacked, 
however lazily he might be disposed from the heat of the weather, 
or a full belly, would become suddenly as agile as a young deer, 
and canter away, holding out his tail, and running with a sort of 
undulatory movement of the back (thereby endeavouring, per- 
haps, to disappoint the touch and designs of his enemy), till he 
had obtained his accustomed retreat in the water, or the fly had 
quitted him,— 
SCUTIS ET Tossing the foam 
They scorn the keeper's voice, and scour the plain, 
Through all the bright serenity of noon ; 
While from their labouring breasts a hollow moan 
Proceeding, runs, low-bellowing, round the hills. 
THOMSON. 
Assuredly no Tabanus can produce any effects like these. Un- 
able 
