76 WHITE 



about at the time of feeding, which for the most part is in the 

 night." Thus far, my friend. 



In the manners of this bird you see there is something very 

 analogous to the bustard, whom it also somewhat resembles 

 in aspect and make, and in the structure of its feet. 



For a long time I have desired my relation to look out for 

 these birds in Andalusia ; and now he writes me word that, 

 for the first time, he saw one dead in the market on the 3rd 

 September. 



When the cedicnemus flies it stretches out its legs straight 

 behind, like a heron. 



I am, etc. 



LETTER XXXIV 



SELBORNE, March $Qth, 1771. 



DEAR SIR, There is an insect with us, especially on chalky 

 districts, which is very troublesome and teasing all the latter 

 end of the summer, getting into people's skins, especially 

 those of women and children, and raising tumors which itch 

 intolerably. This animal (which we call a harvest bug) is very 

 minute, scarce discernible to the naked eye ; of a bright scar- 

 let color, and of the genus of Acarus. They are to be met 

 with in gardens on kidney-beans, or any legumens, but pre- 

 vail only in the hot months of summer. Warreners, as some 

 have assured me, are much infested by them on chalky downs ; 

 where these insects swarm sometimes to so infinite a degree 

 as to discolor their nets, and to give them a reddish cast, while 

 the men are so bitten as to be thrown into fevers. 



There is a small long shining fly in these parts very trouble- 

 some to the housewife, by getting into the chimneys, and lay- 

 ing its eggs in the bacon while it is drying ; these eggs produce 

 maggots called jumpers, which, harboring in the gammons and 

 best parts of the hogs, eat down to the bone, and make great 

 waste. This fly I suspect to be a variety of the musca putris 

 of Linnaeus ; it is to be seen in the summer in farm-kitchens 

 on the bacon-racks and about the mantel-pieces, and on the 

 ceilings. 



