86 iRambles wttb IRature Stufcents 



refuse, decaying cabbage stalks and such like ; it is 

 therefore important that such matters should be burnt 

 instead of being thrown into the dust-bin. The eggs 

 hatch into small white grubs : these, when full grown, 

 become chrysalides, and the flies emerge in due time. 

 The bluebottle fly is only attracted by a meat 

 diet. These flies find out any dead animal or bird, 

 and quickly deposit dozens of very small white eggs 

 upon it. The eggs hatch out in a few hours into 

 small white maggots (known to fishermen as 

 ' gentles ') of a peculiar shape, being pointed at one 

 end and flat at the other. 



LARDER FLY (Magnified"). BLUEBOTTLE (Magnified}. 



These creatures devour any kind of flesh with 

 wonderful rapidity, so that Linnaeus declared that 

 ' Three bluebottles could eat an ox as fast as a lion 

 could.' The bluebottle is a very determined 

 character. Even when meat is covered by a wire 

 sieve this insect will often drop its eggs upon the 

 joint through the interstices of the wirework, so that 

 to make a larder really fly-proof the windows should 

 be protected by fine wire gauze. The smaller green- 

 bottle fly has the same habits, and spends its life in 

 laying eggs on dead or decaying substances or else 

 basking on leaves in the sunshine. When seen through 



