DEER FOREST FLY. 37 
found this poor brute to have rubbed the hair off both its sides as bare 
as to show the bare skin. No doubt this happened in its endeavour to 
get rid of those pests the ‘Forest Fly,’ which I found in clusters in 
the thickest part of what remained of the hair; they evidently collected 
there (about the chest) having no shelter on the other parts of the 
poor brute’s body in this cold weather, being almost quite hairless. 
Thus it can be seen how those brutes suffer, not only from the ravages 
of these pests, but as well from exposure.” 
With a piece of the Roe Deer skin, sent accompanying, was also a 
consignment of the Forest Flies. 
With regard to annoyance and some amount of injury caused by 
the Forest Fly to Deer, Mr. Campbell wrote me on March 27th as 
follows :— 
“There are some of the opinion that the ‘Forest Fly’ does not 
annoy the Deer when once they get used to them. I cannot believe 
but they are a source of great annoyance to them. I often see stags 
and hinds with the hair on neck and sides about this time of the year 
nearly all broken, so much so, that the skin is nearly exposed in some 
cases. They are seldom found on Deer that habitually keep the open 
ground ; only those that live in the woods I have noticed as afflicted 
with them.’”’—(D. C.) 
About a week later, on April 2nd, Mr. Campbell sent me a Roe- 
buck’s skin, also from Strathconan Forest, Ross-shire, for purposes of 
examination. This proved to be of a beautiful deep fur, healthy, and 
very clean from any infestation, excepting a few of the Deer Forest 
Flies, so few that by careful examination, even by combing and shaking, 
I only secured about twelve of the L. cervii—some alive, some dead ; 
nor on this skin did I find any puparia loose amongst the hair. 
All these Forest Flies, which I examined, appeared to be females. 
The colour of the head, thorax above and below, and of the legs was 
of various shades of pitchy. The abdomen pale grey below, commonly 
only ‘‘ scalloped”’ or marked with patches of brown along the outer 
edges and at the base with a cross-band of the same near the apex; in 
one specimen these side bands were absent. On the upper side the 
abdomen had a grey ground colour, marked across at the base with 
pitchy, this pitchy colour extending about a third along each side, and 
altogether forming a kind of broad made V-shaped marking, with the 
points directed backwards (see figure 5, p. 34). Along the upper side 
of the abdomen were three narrow brown cross-bands,—the band or 
patch above the caudal extremity being darker in colour and wider 
than the other two. 
In the course of examination I noticed that the abdomen of one 
specimen was black in colour and distended, and was hard to the 
touch, and on opening this very carefully, I found within a black 
