114 HORSE AND CATTLE FLIES. 
and others subsequently sent me by Dr. Hart, giving a great deal of 
information useful in itself, and also for comparison regarding habits 
of other kinds of Hippobosca. After remarking that he wrote in 
consequence of reading a communication by myself on the H. equina 
published in the ‘ Veterinary Record,’ Dr. Hart observed :— 
“T am sending you by this mail some specimens of flies which 
strike me as being of the same family. They are common in Bengal 
and in other parts of India. The description you give of the habits of 
the fly, and likewise that given by Morgan Evans in the ‘ Field,’ agree 
precisely with the flies which I am sending. 
‘The flies live upon the horse principally between the thighs, along 
the perineum and under the tail. Some horses are driven mad even 
by the presence of a single fly, and in driving along not unfrequently 
start kicking most violently, kicking over the traces and shafts, and 
frequently running away with the carriage. In fact, so terrified do 
they become in many instances, that it is imperative to take them out 
of harness and lead them home. 
‘‘In other instances you will see horses standing perfectly tranquil 
with perhaps twenty or thirty flies crawling about between the thighs, 
and others with their heads buried in the skin, and from which position 
they are detached with difficulty. 
“The fly, notwithstanding its powers of flight appear limited, is 
troublesome to catch, and killed with difficulty. Our syces (grooms) 
invariably pull the head off the fly, and then throw it away, but this 
does not stop it from crawling along. 
“The fly frequently gets on the dog and buries itself in the hair 
chiefly along the back of the neck, but it never appears quite so happy 
and at home on a dog as upon a horse. 
“Morgan Evans says ‘it seems fond of taking short flights over 
the body in quick rushes, generally sideways like a crab, and at 
angles,’ and this is perfectly true.”—(S. H.) 
These flies proved to be of the species originally named by Leach 
as the H. maculata, a very good and descriptive name, as the great 
number of little bright yellow patches, or spots, on the dark pitchy or 
black back are noticeable at a glance, and may well claim for it the 
name of the “Spotted”? Forest Fly. Examined by the side of our own 
Forest Fly, the H. equina, it appears as generally slightly larger, and 
broader made. The back of the fore body is also much more varied 
in surface, the depth and curving of the depressions giving the more 
convex portions between them almost the appearance of lobes. The 
yellow spots, though at the first glance they seem irregular, in the 
specimens before me are arranged to some degree thus: one spot just 
at the back of the neck; on the shoulder a somewhat circular broken 
ring or square formed of one concave patch in front, and two concave 
