PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION 



THE demand for a second edition of this work may, it is hoped, be 

 taken as evidence of an increasing interest in the Diptera. Certainly 

 the labour involved in the production of these pictures has not been 

 in vain if it has encouraged the wider study of British flies — a study 

 which in the author's early days was confined to a very small circle of 

 specialists. Before the coming of Moses Harris and his followers, of 

 Walker, Verrall, Theobald, Ross, VVingate, Austen, Edwards, and Lang, 

 the study of flies in this country was almost entirely neglected, though 

 it is one which may be of the greatest service to horticulture and 

 agriculture, and also to medical and veterinary science. 



E. K. P. 



MORDEN, WAREHAM, DORSET 



May 1928 



