EGGS OF FLIES. 17 



presuming of Flies, as with the most presuming of folks, the 

 more we pry into their places of birth, the more we may be in- 

 clined (but with the insect not justly) to hold them in contempt; 

 suffice it, that as the domestic Fly makes himself quite at home 

 in our houses, so has his parent, in all likelihood, made herself 

 equally free of our stables, where she finds a hot-bed for her 

 eggs, and in the same a provision for her infant race. There, 

 in their first and wingless state of maggot or lava, they com- 

 mence, thus early, their important use of helping to rid the 

 earth of all things that offend, and on how grand a scale they 

 are able to carry on this operation may be estimated from the 

 fact, that a single Fly will lay no less than 177 eggs. House 

 Flies come then chiefly from the stable, the road, and the 

 grazing meadow ; though some nearly resembling them come 

 from other places, and exist in their earliest state on vegetable, 

 instead of animal substances. Among these we have noticed a 

 very common species, which finds its first " bed arid board" 

 between the upper and under skins of dock-leaves, burrowing 

 and feeding on the pulpy flesh. From spring to autumn we 

 may see them thus busily employed, merely by gathering and 

 holding to the light such leaves as are to be found continually, 

 not adorned by large, discoloured, transparent blotches, the 

 outward tokens of their inward presence. These, from the 

 above habit, may be ranked among a set of insect labourers or 

 feeders of more classes than one, hence called Leaf-miners, 

 some of whose winding ways we mean, by and by, to 

 follow. 



A Fly on the wing is a no less curious object than one on 

 foot, yet when do we trouble our heads about it, except as a 

 thing which troubles us ? The most obvious wonder of its flight 

 is its variety of direction, most usually forwards, with the back 

 upwards, like a bird, but on occasion, backwards, with the back 

 downwards, as when starting from the window and alighting 

 on the ceiling. 1 Marvellous velocity is another of its charac- 



1 Mudie. 



