THE HOUSE FLY. 219 



In summer it partially quits our dwellings, the 

 heat and dryness of our buildings becoming irk- 

 some to it, and the occasional difficulty of obtaining 

 water, in which it delights, prompts it to resort 

 to hedges and banks for a certain period ; but it 

 always returns when our barns are filled, and ready 

 for it. 



The house fly (musca carnaria) is another crea- 

 ture that appears domesticated with us ; in some 

 seasons a very numerous, and always a very dirty 

 inmate. It associates in our windows at times with 

 a similar insect (stomoxys calcitrans), that loves to 

 bask on stones and posts, and which is now biting 

 my legs with the most teasing perseverance. But 

 this phlebotomist has not the same attachment to 

 our habitations, is a more solitary insect, and does 

 not unite in those little social parties, that circle for 

 hours in a sober uniformity of flight below the ceil- 

 ings of our chambers. Wherever man appears, this 

 house fly is generally to be seen too : and instances 

 are known, when islands have been taken possession 

 of very far removed from the main land, that for 

 a time no flies were visible, yet ere long these 

 little domestic insects have made their appearance ; 

 neither natives of the isle, nor can we reasonably 

 suppose them to have taken flight from a distant 

 shore ; but probably the offspring of parents that 

 came with the stores in the vessel of the party. 



We may have some few other instances of these 



