COVERT WARBLERS 95 



They hiss and swish about quite near enough 

 to be unpleasant, when you are looking for 

 other creatures ; their movements are remark- 

 ably rapid. 



Insect plagues are, as might be expected, 

 troublesome here ticks, horse-flies, stouts, and 

 midges ; there are others, but the four men- 

 tioned are quite enough. In case our readers, 

 or at least some of them, should come in con- 

 tact with those we have indicated, let me sug- 

 gest the remedies. If you find ticks fixed on 

 you about the size of small peas, sometimes 

 larger ones, it is useless to try and pull them 

 away ; that would be disastrous. Carry a 

 small bottle, with a feather run through the 

 cork,, filled with olive-oil and paraffin in equal 

 proportions. Pass the feather over their bodies 

 if they fix on you, and they will drop off at 

 once. Pull horse-flies in two that is the only 

 thing you can do with them ; and after one 

 experience of their torture you will kill every 

 stout you can get at, which is easy enough. 

 As to midges, don't go where they are if you 

 can help it, only when necessity compels ; but 

 the mixture we have used will give relief in all 

 cases. A flask of whisky will never be out of 

 place or in the way. Practical natural observa- 



