82 OBSERVATIONS ON QUADRUPEDS. 



months old. The larger of the two consists chiefly 

 of hair, and is not perfectly spherical, being flattened 

 at the poles : it measures four inches and three quar- 

 ters in diameter, and weighs seven ounces, three hun- 

 dred and eighty-two grains. The smaller one is made 

 up chiefly of fragments of straw, and is spherical, 

 but with a very uneven surface. This last measures 

 two inches and a half in diameter, and weighs one 

 ounce, one hundred and twenty-nine grains. 



SHEEP, 



June 29, 1826. OWING to the hot weather that 

 has prevailed of late, the cattle and flocks are dread- 

 fully annoyed by flies, which will not suffer them to 

 have a moment's rest. The cool of the evening is 

 the only time in which they can feed in peace. The 

 sheep which have been lately shorn, and whose skins 

 are in consequence susceptible of the slightest irrita- 

 tion, are in particular terribly worried by the great 

 horse-fly,* which eats into their flesh in the most un- 

 merciful manner. Hence this species does not con- 

 fine its attacks to horses and the larger cattle. In 

 the present instance, we observed them sticking, four 

 or five together, to those parts of the sheep's backs 

 which had been just touched by the shears and 

 raised to a slight sore. 



March 25, 1828. A shepherd brought me to-day 

 for examination some minute parasitical insects with 



* Tabanus bovinus, Linn. 



