118 BREEZE-FLY. - 
priately were they named ‘burning flies,’ for, 
wherever they thrust in the lancet, it is just as 
though a brad-awl needle had been bored slowly 
into one’s flesh. They continue the summer 
through until September, but luckily are con- 
fined to particular districts. Sandy soil, and lots 
of water, are the essential elements conducive 
to their welfare and multiplication. Bad as these 
burning flies are, I still maintain Madam Mos- 
quito is far the worst. The Ladies Briflot do in- 
dulge in a short repose, but Mistress Mosquito, I 
believe, never winks her eyes, and is always on 
the move. 
By Breeze-fly I mean flies belonging to the 
genus Tabanus, not those of the genus @strus, 
with which they are frequently confounded. The 
latter—commonly called Bot-fly, which is also a 
terrible pest, alike avoided by both horse and 
ruminant—deposits its eggs sometimes on the 
hair, and sometimes underneath the skin; hence 
animals, guided by a natural instinct, or having 
been the victims of a past and painful expe- 
rience, all at the sound of his dreaded trumpet 
make the best of their way to the nearest water, 
into which they plunge. 
On the contrary, in the Breeze-fly we have to 
do with a veritable blood-sucker, more ravenous 
