The Life of the Fly 



together and each cased In a sheath. The pa- 

 tient biographer counted the host : It numbers, 

 he tells us, nearly twenty thousand. You are 

 seized with stupefaction at this anatomical 

 fact. 



How does the Grey Fly find the time to 

 settle a family of such dimensions, especially 

 In small packets, as she has just done on my 

 wlndow-sUl? What a number of dead Dogs, 

 Moles and Snakes must she not visit before 

 exhausting her womb ! Will she find them ? 

 Corpses of much size do not abound to that 

 extent In the country. As everything suits 

 her, she will alight on other remains of minor 

 Importance. Should the prize be a rich one, 

 she win return to It to-morrow, the day after 

 and later still, over and over again. In the 

 course of the season, by dint of packets of 

 grubs deposited here, there and everywhere, 

 she w^Ill perhaps end by housing her entire 

 brood. But then. If all things prosper, what 

 a glut, for there are several families born dur- 

 ing the year! We feel It Instinctively: there 

 must be a check to these generative enormities. 



Let us first consider the grub. It Is a sturdy 

 maggot, easy to distinguish from the Green- 

 bottle's by Its larger girth and especially by 

 the way In which Its body terminates behind, 

 238 



