146 THE COMMON HOUSE-FLY. 



haps such a paper should have been read at a titr.e when the 

 supply of flies exceeded the demand for them, and not now 

 in mid-winter, when, as the commercial papers have it, the 

 market in flies is dull. To study flies we should have them 

 about, so that they can be seen, heard, and felt, as lessons 

 are only well learned by studying the objects themselves. 



"The history of the common house-fly has been studied 

 thoroughly but quite recently. The memoirs of the Swedish 

 Count DeGeer, published a little over a hundred years ago, 

 contain the first notice of this interesting insect, while a 

 fuller account was given in an obscure book by Bouche, a 

 German entomologist, published in 1834. Both accounts 

 are far from thorough. Dr. A. S. Packard published his 

 prize essay upon this insect in 1874, this being the first real 

 scientific work upon it. About the same time the question 

 came up: is our fliy identical with the house-fly of Europe? 

 Strange to sa3', when the question arose in mid-winter, all 

 our museums were ransacked for specimens for comparison, 

 and to the great disgust of entomologists it was discovered 

 that not a single fly could be found in an^- American collec- 

 tion of insects. There w^as a corner in flies — perhaps the 

 first time in history! Later material was not lacking, and 

 Dr. Packard could not find any diflerence between house- 

 flies from dift'erent countries. 



"How long this fly has been living in this country there 

 are no data to show, and it may have sailed on the May- 

 flower, or buzzed in the cabin of Captain John Smith's ves- 

 sel, or even performed its measured flight near the ceilings in 

 the ancient towai of Pemaquid. At all events, the house-fly 

 is one of the earliest settlers, and is entitled to the liberty it 

 takes every summer with the upper Four Hundred of New- 

 York. Perhaps it may have been here before America w^as 

 discovered; and when Christopher Columbus wiped his brow 

 upon landing on our shores, it may have been read\' to 

 settle upon his nose. The fly is impudent enough to have 

 done so, though history does not throw light upon this 

 subject. 



"Duringthe month of August the house-fly is particularly 

 abundant, and especially so in the neighborhood of stables. 



