THE FLY. . 81 



fly — a small black one — is of the house-fly species, called Antho- 

 uiyia inctcorica. Such flies call to mind the plague of flies in 

 Egypt, and enable us to understand what an intolerable nuisance 

 they must have been : darkening the air with their numbers, filling 

 every room, settling on food and drink, on face and hands, enter- 

 ing the eyes, ears, nostrils, and the mouth ; flies above, beneath, 

 around; flies everywhere. Among the sculptures of ancient 

 Egypt is the representation of a monarch, with his servant bearing 

 a flapper of horse-hair to keep away the swarms. They are to this 

 day a pest in the land. One species in particular attack the 

 eyes of sufferers from ophthalmia. The Egyptians call it the 

 Sand-fly; other nations the Black-fly. Its scientific name is 

 Simtclhun. It is a near relation of the Bibio^ common about our 

 hedges. This black fly is often called by travellers the Mosquito. 

 Though small, its oral structure is fully developed, and it is more 

 venomous than the Culex-inosquito. It is very generally distri- 

 buted, but fortunately rare in England. Wherever it abounds, 

 it is the scourge of the country. North Lapland and parts 

 of North America are particularly afilicted by it. In Sene- 

 gal the wretched inhabitants light a fire, and sitting above it, 

 envelope themselves in smoke to keep off the flies of the country; 

 probably this black fly. Perhaps it was the same fly from which 

 an exploration party suffered so severely in the deserts of Western 

 Australia. If it were these flies which afflicted Egypt in the time 

 of the Pharaohs, it was a terrible scourge indeed. 



But the flies of the plague of Egypt might have been Mosqui- 

 tos. Ancient history tells of a king of Persia being forced to 

 abandon the siege of a town by swarms of mosquitos, which 

 attacked his cattle and his army. Captain Burton, when travel- 

 ling in North America, mentions the trouble his party had with 

 these insects during his progress by the Red River ; while such 

 places as Mosquito Bay, St. Christopher's; Mosquito Town in 

 Cuba; and Mosquito Country, North America, sufficiently indi- 

 cate by their names the uncomfortable position of their inhabit- 

 ants. 



The common Gnat of our own country is a very near relative 

 of the Mosquito, and sufficiently venomous to be guarded against. 

 The Midges, also relatives of the foregoing, are minute and pretty 



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