INSECTS. 1 45 



tectcd from the Mosquitos by creeping into a kind of sack 

 suflBcieut only for the covering of a single person.* 



Let us now notice, with equal brevity, the sufferings 

 inflicted by insects on some of our domestic animals. No 

 words whicii we could use for this purpose would be so 

 graphic as those of Spencer: — 



" As when a swarme of Gnats at eventide 

 Out of the fennes of Allan doc arise, 

 Their murmuring, small trumpets sounden wide; 

 Whiles in the air their clust'ring armies flyes, 

 That as a cloud doth seem to dini the skyes; 

 Is'e man nor beast may rest, or take repast. 

 For their sharp wounds and noyous injuries; 

 'Till the fierce northern wind, with blustering blast. 

 Doth blowe them quite away, and in the ocean cast." 



Faicrt Queexe, Book II. c. ix. st. 16. 



Besides being subjected to the biting of Gnats, our horses 

 and oxen suffer from the various species of Gad-flies (Taba- 

 nidce. Fig. 135), which make them the peculiar object of 

 attack. They pierce the skin, and suck the blood, their 

 razor-shaped weapons per- 

 forming the double ofllce 

 of making the wound and 

 pumping out the liqiiid. 

 The peculiar noise which 

 they make, and which has 

 gained them the name of 

 "the breeze," constitutes 

 of itself a source of fright fig. i3o.-Tabaihj8. 



and annoyanccf 



Perhaps the terror caused by the Bot-flies, or CEstri {Fig. 

 136), is still more striking; it has long been observed, for it 

 is accurately described by Virgil.J Each specios of QHstrus 

 not onlv selects the peculiar species of quadruped on which it 

 is parasitic, but with unfailing instinct fixes its eggs in the 

 situation best adapted for the welfare of its future progeny.§ 

 Thus, the species which attacks the ox deposits its eggs on 

 the back of the animal, and these, when hatched, produce the 



* Travels by Edward Daniel Clarke, LL. D. 2d edition, page 387. 



t Westwood. page 639. 



X Gcorgics, Book III. 



§ Bracey Clarke in Trans. Linnican. Society. 



Part. i. K 



