86 THE BOOK OF THE FLY 



There is no English work sufficiently modern and 

 comprehensive for a study of our native flies. In 

 1776, Moses Harris, who originated or elaborated the 

 study of wing patterns, published his " Exposition of 

 English Insects," in which more than 300 flies are 

 figured and described ; they have the old Linnaean classi- 

 fication and nomenclature, of course, and the work is 

 scarce. All later attempts by English authors in the way 

 of a more comprehensive student's guide book have been 

 left incomplete. Another excellent, but expensive work, 

 Curtis's "Genera of British Insects," contains about 

 250 illustrations and descriptions of flies ; but most of 

 these are rather rarities, and the amateur in search of 

 a facile guide to the commoner objects of the country- 

 side will be apt to be disappointed. For the sake of 

 readers possibly eager of advancing further in the study, 

 and in the absence of any commendable guide book, 

 a short appendix has been added to the present \vork, 

 for help in identifying more numerous species and 

 those of many families and genera not mentioned in the 

 foregoing pages. With the leave of the Northumber- 

 land, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne Natural 

 History Society some valuable plates of illustrations 

 are herewith reprinted, and explanatory notes are 

 added, mainly from the volume of the Society's trans- 

 actions for 1906, a most valuable work and compilation 

 by the late Rev. W. ]. Wingate, of Bishop Auckland. 

 This learned entomologist has succeeded in giving a 

 marvellously comprehensive amount of clear condensed 

 guidance. It is a great privilege that the present 

 booklet has been allowed to borrow from such a source 



