THE HOUSE FLY 39 



ing to others of their kind, wear the plumage of wild birds, 

 which are exceedingly useful allies in our war against insect 

 and other pests. No thought is ever given to the fact that, 

 in order to obtain this plumage, hosts of lovely birds are 

 brutally done to death, and nestling birds allowed to perish 

 miserably of starvation. 



Knowing that the House Fly is the chief ally of our 

 dreaded enemies the disease microbes, surely our first 

 endeavour should be to learn what creatures are the natural 

 enemies of this terrible carrier of the seeds of sickness and 

 death to us, and to our domestic animals. It is not suffi- 

 cient to ascertain what species of animals, reptiles, and 

 insects are our allies. If we are guided by an educated 

 intellect, we will go further and practically apply the know- 

 ledge, by not only making it unlawful to kill or injure these 

 allies of ours, but we will teach the facts to our children ; 

 and the only thoroughly efficient way to do it is to have it 

 taught in schools and in the lecture hall. It may be urged 

 that it is a duty of the parents to do this. It may be so, 

 but the fact remains that, with but few exceptions, parents 

 do not possess this form of knowledge, and even if they did, 

 they would not take the trouble to instruct their children. 

 In the meantime the people of the community and the State 

 as a whole suffer. 



We will now briefly mention some of the natural enemies 

 of the House Fly. 



A fungus, known as Empusa muscoe, attacks and kills 

 flies. It is particularly active in the autumn. Having 

 increased and infected large numbers of flies during the 

 summer, it destroys its victims and thus prevents them 

 hibernating and increasing during the following summer 



