174 SOME BIKD PARASITES 



tropical brilliancy, and several of the kingfishers of 

 sunnier climes are clad in sad-coloured raiment. 



XLII 



In bovine, ovine, and other circles, Man the Omni- 

 some Bird vorous must be regarded with some of the 

 parasites shuddering horror which affects ourselves 

 when we come in contact with certain parasitical forms 

 of life. Our dairy industry, for instance, is rich in 

 Arcadian association, though the growing use of the 

 milking-machine threatens to destroy much of its 

 poetry and picturesqueness. But dairying was never 

 anything but sheerly parasitic the abstraction of its 

 juices from the living animal. Were it possible to 

 obtain a census of opinion from ' the cattle upon a 

 thousand hills,' it would probably prove highly un- 

 complimentary to ourselves, and reflect much the same 

 sentiments with which we regard vampires and blood- 

 sucking insects. 



Those whose houses are frequented by swallows and 

 martins, and who rejoice to be wakened on summer 

 mornings by their twittering under the eaves, may 

 have noticed the appearance on the window-panes of a 

 dipterous fly of peculiarly offensive appearance. It is 

 about the length of a common house fly, but much 

 broader, clinging by strong claws, set on thick, crooked 

 legs, and having a horny integument so hard that it 

 requires heavy pounding to kill the creature. It is 

 a member of the Hippoboscidce, belonging to the strange 

 group named Pupipara, or pupa-bearers, owing to their 



