THE HOUSE FLY. 



to any precarious supply from its own industry. 

 In summer it partially quits our dwellings, the 

 heat and dryness of our buildings becoming irk- 

 some to it, and the occasional difficulty of obtaining 

 water, in which it delights, prompts it to resort 

 to hedges and banks for a certain period ; but it 

 always returns when our barns are filled, and ready 

 for it. 



The house fly (musca carnaria) is another crea- 

 ture that appears domesticated with us ; in some 

 seasons a very numerous, and always a very dirty 

 inmate. It associates in our windows at times with 

 a similar insect (stomoxys caldtrans}^ that loves to 

 bask on stones and posts, and which is now biting 

 my legs with the most teasing perseverance. But 

 this phlebotomist has not the same attachment to 

 our habitations, is a more solitary insect, and does 

 not unite in those little social parties that circle for 

 hours in a sober uniformity of flight below the 

 ceilings of our chambers. Wherever man appears, 

 this house fly is generally to be seen too : and in- 

 stances are known, when islands have been taken 

 possession of very far removed from the main 

 land, that for a time no flies were visible, yet ere 

 long -these little domestic insects have made their 

 appearance ; neither natives of the isle, nor can 

 we reasonably suppose them to have taken flight 

 from a distant shore ; but probably the offspring of 

 parents that came with the stores in the vessel of 

 the party. 



We may have some few other instances of these 



