INSECTS. 1 45 



tccted from the Mosquitos by creeping into a kind of sack 

 sufficient only for the covering of a single person.* 



Let us now notice, with equal brevity, the sufferings 

 inflicted by insects on some of our domestic animals. No 

 words which we could use for this purpose would be so 

 graphic as those of Spencer: 



" As when a swarme of Gnats at eventide 

 Out of the fennes of Allan doe arise, 

 Their murmuring, small trumpets sounden wide; 

 Whiles in the air their clust'ring armies flyes, 

 That as a cloud doth seem to dim the skyes; 

 Ne man nor beast may rest, or take repast, 

 For their sharp wounds and noyous injuries; 

 'Till the fierce northern wind, with blustering blast, 

 Doth blowe them quite away, and in the ocean cast." 



FAERY QUEENE, Book II. c. ix. st. 1C. 



Besides being subjected to the biting of Gnats, our horses 

 and oxen suffer from the various species of Gad-flies (Taba- 

 nidce. Fig. 135), which make them the peculiar object of 

 attack. They pierce the skin, and suck tho blood, their 

 razor-shaped weapons per- 

 forming the double office 



of making the wound and 



pumping out the liquid. ^^'-^^^^^^fj^f^^ : 



The peculiar noise which 



they make, and which has 



gained them the name of 



"the breeze," constitutes 



of itself a source of fright 



and annoyance.f 



Perhaps the terror caused by the Bot-flies, or (Estri 

 136), is still more striking; it has long been observed, for it 

 is accurately described by Virgil, f Each species of (Estrus 

 not only selects the peculiar species of quadruped on which it 

 is parasitic, but with unfailing instinct fixes its eggs hi the 

 situation best adapted for the welfare of its future progeny. 

 Thus, the species which attacks the ox deposits its eggs on 

 the back of the animal, and these, when hatched, produce the 



* Travels by Edward Daniel Clarke, LL.D. 2d edition, page 387. 



f Westwood, page 539. 



J Georgics, Book III. 



Bracey Clarke in Trans. Linnsean Society. 



