LITTLE PEOPLE OF THE OUT-DOOR WORLD 573 



when the village of Emsworth was visited by a remark- 

 able " storm of flies." So thick were they that the in- 

 habitants had to put handkerchiefs over their faces to 

 keep from inhaling them into their lungs. 



Another " fly storm " was encountered by the " Bay 

 Queen " on its trip from Providence to Newport. 



In all of these so-called fly storms the insects were 

 probably not true flies, but what are known in various 

 parts of the country as day flies, May flies and shad 

 flies. I have seen one of these so-called " fly storms " 

 on Lake Erie, when they were so thick that the lights 

 had to be put out in the summer hotels and lanterns 

 placed along the verandas to keep the insects out of the 

 bedrooms and parlors. I have sailed through twenty 

 miles of scum composed of the cast off skins of May 

 flies, and on the shores of the Licking river, in Kentucky, 

 I have myself been compelled to cover my face with 

 my handkerchief to keep the little lace-winged May flies 

 from being drawn into my nose or mouth with my 

 breath. 



The May fly is a harmless insect, the larvae (young) 

 of which lives in the water, like those of the dragon fly 

 and the mosquito, but all of us who are familiar with 

 accounts of the storms of locusts in Africa and grasshop- 

 pers in our own West, know that the latter insects are 

 anything but harmless. They will devour every green 

 sprig and leaf within reach. They cover the street so 

 thickly that the horses slip and fall upon the bodies 

 mashed underfoot. The grasshoppers eat up the cloth- 

 ing hung up on the lines to dry. A flight of these insects 

 is not called " a storm," but a plague of locusts. 



