46 FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



London than it used to be, since stables and mews are 

 now fewer and cleaner than they were. It is also the 

 reason why the house-fly abounds in ill-kept country 

 inns and farmhouses. Its breeding ground is just out- 

 side the window. 



There is not only one common house-fly in this 

 country : there are three kinds, in addition to the blue- 

 bottle or blow-fly, which is distinguished at once by its 

 great size and blue colour, and lays its eggs in carrion. 

 Late in the year you may often see what would pass for 

 young or starveling house-flies going about among the 

 others. This is a distinct species, the Homalomyia 

 canicularis of entomologists. The third kind only to 

 be distinguished by careful examination with the aid of 

 a magnifying glass, is Anthomyia radicum. Both these 

 are much less abundant than the common house-fly 

 (Musca domestica), with which they almost always 

 occur. Their breeding habits are similar to those of 

 the common house-fly. 



A fourth kind of fly is invariably mistaken for the 

 common house-fly when it is noticed, as it sometimes is, 

 in consequence of the sharp stab which it inflicts. As 

 recently as the beginning of November last year I was 

 "bitten" or pricked by one of this fourth kind in a 

 London club. They are common enough on the sea 

 shore in autumn, and may be a severe nuisance. People 

 generally take them for common house-flies which have 

 lost their temper in the hot weather and give way to 

 the bad habit of "biting"" out of sheer exasperation. 

 Really, of course, a house-fly could not stab or prick 

 with its broad-ended proboscis. The fly in question, 

 which looks almost exactly like a well-grown house-fly, 

 but possesses a sharp and fcusiness-like beak or proboscis, 

 is known to scientific men as Stomoxys calcitrans. 

 There are many kinds of Stomoxys scattered all over 

 the world, and it is probable, though not actually 

 proved, that they carry parasites such as the trypano- 



