184 PROC. ENT. SOC. WASH., VOL. 24, NO. 7-8, OCT.-NOV., 1922 



although there are references to the "worm of conscience," etc., 

 which can not be referred accurately to any order. Shakespeare 

 contains several famous references to the worm of the grave, 

 and among them is this: 



"A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king. 

 And eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm." 



Hamlet. 



The maggots of the Muscoidean diptera are not much used as 

 bait by anglers in this country, but in England it has long been 

 the custom to employ them for this purpose. Izaak Walton 

 calls them "gentles" and describes the technique of rearing 

 them to best advantage so that they may be available all winter. 

 He adds: "These will last until March and about that time 

 turn to be flies. " When we consider that this was written about 

 the middle of the 17th century, it seems to argue a remarkably 

 advanced knowledge of insect biology on the part of "honest 

 Izaak. " 



There still remains to be considered the ubiquitous, filthy, 

 house-fly which, of course, is not mentioned under that name by 

 the earlier poets, who refer to it simply as " the fly. " Sometimes, 

 however, the circumstances are such as to identify the insect 

 almost certainly as in Shakespeare: 



"Thus smiling, as some fly had tickled slumber, 

 Not as death's dart, bfing laughed at." 



Cymbeline. 



Or the following: 



"Rouse him; make after him, poison his delight, 



****** 



Plague him with flies." 



-Othello. 



Later poets have apostrophized the insect, usually in the pro- 

 testing tones of Thomas MacKellar: 



"What! here again! indomitable pest? 

 Ten times I've closed my heavy lids in vain 

 This early morn to court an hour of sleep; 

 For thou, tormentor, constantly dost keep 

 Thy whiz/ing tones resounding through my brain, 

 Or lightest on my sensitive nose, and there 

 Thou trimmest thy wings and shakest thy legs of hair. " 



To a Troublesome Fly. 



Thomas Hardy pictures him in a familar act: 



"While mid my page there idly stands 

 A sleepy fly, that rubs his hands. " 



Although Holmes calls the insect by name in the following verse, 

 it seems more than likely that the flv whose behaviour is men- 



