Zoological Society. 145 



I have called this fly Tsal tsalya Kelb, ui answer to the word Cynomyia. 

 i Salal in the Hebrew signifies * to buzz ' or ' to hum,' and as it were 

 I alludes to the noise with which the animal terrifies the cattle ; and 

 I Tsal tsalya seems to come from this by only doubling the radicals : 

 \ t'Tsalalou*, in Amharic, signifies 'to pierce with violence.' " — 



Appendix, vii. 284 et seq. 



\ From this account we learn that it is the sound of this insect which 



produces a great amount of trepidation in the cattle of Abyssinia. This 



I accords withBracy Clark's ideas of CEstrus Bovis. Bruce's description 



j of the position of the wings clearly indicates a Dipterous insect, and 



\ his figure shows a bee-like insect, vrith a long straight porrected pro- 



j boscis exactly like that of Glossina. Bruce adds, that the insect 



f punctures the thick skin of the camel with its proboscis, the parts 



attacked breaking out into large bosses, which are also occasionally 



found upon the rhinoceros and elephant. It will be observed how- 



; ever that Bruce merely supposed these tumours to arise from the 



attack of the Zimb. 



I think we have sufficient grounds for believing that Bruce has 

 here jumbled together the notion of the buzzing of the Oestrus 

 \ instilling dread into a herd of cattle, his knowledge of the piercing 

 I powers of the proboscis of the Setse, and his knowledge of the tu- 

 mours caused by the presence of the larvse of CEstri under the skin 

 of the camel f, rhinoceros and elephant. The College of Surgeons 

 ! possesses a specimen of the larva of the QiJstrus of the rhinoceros, 

 : and the camel is also subject to the attacks of a species of the same 

 ! genus ; whilst I consider that Bruce' s figure is made up from memory, 

 i taking the statement of its resemblance to a bee and its possession 

 I of a proboscis together J. No instance, in fact, is known of a spe- 

 i cies which attacks these animals with its proboscis, forming tumours 

 : upon their backs such as are described by Bruce, which agree on the 

 whole with the tumours caused by the larvae of (Estrus Bovis ; and 

 we have already seen that no (Estrus is capable of inflicting a wound 

 with the organs of the mouth, of which in fact all the known species 

 I are destitute, whilst the boring powers of their ovipositors are very 

 i questionable. 



i The accounts given by Mr. R. Gordon Camming of the destructive 

 powers of the Tsetse fully confirm the opinion here advanced, and 

 ; prove that although "its bite is certain death to oxen and horses," 

 it causes no dorsal tumours like an (Estrus. "This hunter's scourge," 

 \ he says, " is similar to a fly in Scotland called Kleg §, but a little 

 \ smaller ; they are very quick and active, and storm a horse like a 



* "The name of this fly is undoubtedly derived from a word signifying ' to buzz ' 

 in Hebrew and Ethiopic. 



t Pliny was aware of the attacks of CEstri upon the camel, and he informs us 

 I that the merchants of Arabia were in the habit of anointing tlieir camels with 

 i whale- and fish-oils. (Hist. Mund. lib. xxxii. p. 302, et lib. xi. cap. 16. p. 36. 

 1 edit. Pancoucke.) 



! J It is evident from the note added by the editor of the 8vo edition, from 

 j which the above extracts have been made, that the drawing of the insect was not 

 I a bond fide one made on the spot, but was manufactured at home. 

 I § Kleg is the local name for the Hmmatopota pluvialis. 



Ann. 6j- Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. x. 10 



