150 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



their backs, or stiffly stretched out in the direction of 

 the spine, gallop about their pastures, making the 

 country re-echo with their lowings, and finding- no rest 

 till they get into the water. Their appearance and 

 motions are at this time so grotesque, clumsy, and 

 seemingly unnatural, that we are tempted rather to 

 laugh at the poor beasts than to pity them, though 

 evidently in a situation of great terror and distress. 

 The cause of all this agitation and restlessness is a 

 small gad-fly, (CE. Bovis, L.,) less than the horse-bee, 

 the object of which, thovigh it be not to bite them, but 

 merely to oviposit in their hides, is not put into exe- 

 cution without giving them considerable pain. Virgil, 

 in his Georgics, has beautifully and accurately de- 

 scribed the effects of the approach and assault of the 

 CEstrus upon the cattle. As the passage has not bgen 

 very correctly translated, I shall turn poet on the oc- 

 casion, and attempt to give it you in a new dress. 



Through waving groves' where Selo's torrent flows, 

 And where, Alborno, thy green Ilex grows, 

 Myriads of insects flutter in the gloom 

 (Qj^strus in Greece, Asilus nam'd at Rome) 

 Fierce and of cruel hum. By the dire sound 

 Driven from the woods and shady glens around 

 'J'he univerpa! herds in terror fly ; 

 Their iowings shake the woods and shake the sky. 

 And Negro's arid shore 



When oxen are employed in agriculture, the attack 

 of this fly is often attended with great danger, since 



* Reaumur observes that the CEstri infest cattle principally in wootU 

 Jand countries, and not in the plains, iv. 506. 



