22 



The Book of Bugs. 



weeks emerges an adult fly, ready to scare the flesh off 

 more cattle. 



What do you think of such conduct? Could anything 

 be more fiendish in its plan, more unprincipled and 

 selfish ? 



The Hessian fly, that ruins Heaven only knows how 



much wheat every year, is a 

 true fly and- - o h, w e 1 1, 

 pshaw! there is no use mak- 

 ing a whole book on all kinds 

 of flies, when I set out only 

 to write one chapter on the 

 fl i e s that come into the 

 house. 



There is altogether too 

 much of the ' it is esti- 

 mated ' about the life-his- 

 tory of the common fly, for, 

 strange as it may seem, it is 

 an animal that is very hard 



to rear from the egg. Other insects will live, move, and 

 have their being in a box with gauze over it to let in air 

 and light. All they ask is board and lodgings, and, like 

 the curios in a dime museum, they will answer any and 

 all proper questions; photographs for sale for their own 

 benefit. But fit up the most luxurious quarters for flies, 

 well aired and lighted, though perhaps small, stocked 

 with all the delicacies of the stable and the garbage can, 

 and they may lay a few eggs in a half-hearted sort of 

 way and then incontinently turn up their toes and die. 

 They do it for spite, I think. 



Still there are many interesting things known about 

 the fly, and as usual what are most interesting are not 

 true. 



Fig. 3. Hcematobia serrata^ the 

 horn-fly. 



