OF SRLBORNE. 147 



There is a small long- shining fly in these parts very 

 troublesome to the housewife, by getting into the chim- 

 neys, and laying its eggs in the bacon while it is drying : 

 these eggs produce maggots called jumpers, which, 

 harbouring in the gammons and best parts of the hogs, 

 eat down to the bone, and make great waste. This fly 

 I suspect to be a variety of the Musca putris of Lin- 

 naeus : it is to be seen in the summer in farm-kitchens 

 on the. bacon racks, and about the mantel-pieces, and 

 on the ceilings 2 . 



common in France as it is in England. In the former country it is 

 known by the names of rouget, derived from its colour, and of bdte d' 

 Aout, and pique-Aofit, indicating the season of its appearance and the 

 annoyance produced by it. It occurs there from the middle of July to 

 the middle of September, and is most abundant in years of great drought 

 and heat. The root of the hairs is its favourite place of attack, and the 

 legs are naturally most apt to suffer from a creature that makes its first 

 approach either from the ground or from low vegetables. They travel 

 quickly on the skin, but are often stopped in their progress upwards by 

 garters or other ligatures. The itching occasioned by their punctures is 

 intolerable, and the large pimples produced by them are very apt to 

 suppurate, if irritated by the scratching which they seem designed to 

 provoke. Concentrated spirit or strong vinegar will destroy them ; but 

 such applications ought not, of course, to be resorted to if the skin has 

 been broken. Similar annoyances, from similar causes, and even to a 

 much greater extent than are here produced by the harvest mite, are 

 recorded by Messrs. Kirby and Spence as occurring in South America 

 and the West India Islands. 



It has been suggested that as many of the mites are known to have, in 

 the early stage of their existence, six legs only, and to acquire subsequently 

 an additional pair, the harvest mite may perhaps be merely the young 

 condition of a true Acarus : but of this no evidence has yet been adduced 

 beyond the general analogy. The danger of reasoning from analogy in 

 natural history has been hinted at by White in Letter XXVI. ; but the 

 consideration of analogous cases may sometimes be encouraged with the 

 view of attracting attention to points in the history of animals which 

 might otherwise be overlooked. E. T. B. 



2 Are not these jumpers, and the fly that is produced from them, 

 identical with the hoppers of the cheese, the maggots which become in 

 their final state the Tyrophaga Casei, HERB.? Their leaping powers are 

 thus described by Messrs. Kirby and Spence. " These maggots have long 

 been celebrated for their saltatorious powers. They effect their tremen- 

 dous leaps laugh not at the term, for they are truly so when compared 

 with what human force and agility can accomplish in nearly the same 

 manner as salmon are stated to do when they wish to pass over a cataract, 



