264 LETTERS TO MR. JANSON [CHAP. xxn. 



an application a little while ago from the forester on one of 

 the great properties near Aberdeen, who reports great mis- 

 chief on 1,000 acres. This afternoon I have a report of the 

 woods at Craighlaw, Kirkcowan, Wigtonshire, being in most 

 dismal condition. 



I really wonder whether it will ever occur to our Board 

 of Agriculture that there ought to be a Government Ento- 

 mologist. It is only a short time since I had an application 

 connected with the Austrian Embassy about a beetle attack 

 that was eating the oats at Constantinople, but I suggested 

 that Vienna was unsurpassed for its scientific men ! 



August 1 8, 1899. 



I am thinking (though I have not mentioned the matter 

 beyond just beginning at present) of (if I can find it) taking 

 a comfortable villa and good garden at or in the outskirts of 

 Brighton. I much wish to be nearer relations, for living so 

 much alone is at times a very dreary kind of thing. Also 

 there are many points in which Brighton would, I think, 

 suit me better for my work, and possibly be more con- 

 veniently easy of access for entomological friends living 

 on the South London lines. I know the place very well, 

 and it has always suited my health excellently. 



September 19, 1899. 



I have a Hippoboscid this afternoon from Mr. Wheler, which 

 was found on a lamb. He thinks it is a Grouse fly (or 

 Spider fly, a near relative of the Forest fly). Surely oddly 

 located ! But so far as I see I think it must be so. Shall I 

 not send it you ? In any case it might be of interest, and I 

 should very much like, at your convenience, to be made sure 

 of what it is. If it be Ornithomyia avicularia (Grouse fly), I 

 conjecture that it straggled into the nearest shelter when it 

 developed. It is in beautiful order, but so lively that I have 

 not been able to get a good look at the claws. [This identi- 

 fication was confirmed by Mr. Janson.] 



September 22, 1899. 



I am much obliged to you for all the points of interesting 

 information in your letter. There is no hurry about figur- 

 ing the Grouse fly, so that if Mr. Norman would kindly let 

 me have the slide as soon as he thinks it would be safe to 

 use it, I should feel very much obliged. I now enclose the 

 specimen from a lamb. I quieted its very superabundant 

 antics by slipping a little lump of cotton wool down the 

 tube, about a third of the way, and it accepted the soft 

 material moderately. It died afterwards, and I enclose it 

 with some spirits in the tube. I should (if not inconvenient 



