1G6 GAD- OR BREEZE FLIES. 



walks through the machine, and just as it passes the dome 

 and enters the darkened part a set of brushes sweep off the 

 flies, which naturally rise into the lighted dome, and the 

 steer passes out at the other side free from flies. The flies 

 are retained in the dome trap. The inventor has experi- 

 mented with his machine, and finds that animals soon learn 

 the value of it and know enough to walk through the same 

 when the flies laegin to bite. The device is said to be pat- 

 ented, but a plan involving the same principle has been in use 

 among farmers for the destruction of horn-flies for a year or 

 two past. 



GAD-FLIES. BREEZE-FLIES. 



{Ti(ha)ild(t'). 



There is quite a large family of flies the members of 

 w^hich have gained for themselves a very bad reputation. 

 They are usually called Gad- or Breeze-flies. Such flies are 

 found everywhere, and each climate has its own species, but 

 all possess the same blood-thirsty character and attack 

 warm-blooded animals, be they lions in the torrid zone or 

 reindeers in Lapland,and none escape their attacks,be they do- 

 mesticated oxen and horses or wild and swift-iooted moose 

 and deer. The family is distinguished by a broad and 

 slightly flattened body, by a large head depressed from front 

 to rear, by very large eyes, which are contiguous in the 

 males, and which are frequently beautifully colored, b3' a 

 thick and compact thorax, with a large and elevated 

 scutellum, and by legs whose tarsi are furnished with three 

 cushions. The last joint of the feelers is annulated but has 

 no stylet; the exerted proboscis of the female encloses six 

 lancet-like instruments, while that of the male possesses but 

 four; it ends in two fleshy and lip-like lobes and is covered 

 on the sides b\' the large two-jointed maxillary palpi. The 

 wings, which extend horizontally, are propelled by powerful 

 muscles and contain a larger number of veins than is usual 

 in flies. The flight of these flies is very rapid and accompanied 

 by a buzzing sound which greatly alarms animals hearing it. 



Only the females of Gad- or Breeze-Flies attack animals; 

 the males live on the sap of flowers. These insects are most 



