THE FLESH-FLIES. 369 



our persons or property, for our only real grounds of 

 complaint are to be summed up in the tickling sen- 

 sation which its feet cause when it crawls over the 

 one, and the dirt which it leaves behind it upon the 

 other. In its larva state, however, it lives inoffen- 

 sively enough in dung, along with many other species 

 of its tribe, and it is not until it emerges in the perfect 

 state from this delectable food that it visits us in our 

 houses, to feast upon our food and beverages. There 

 are other species, however, at the head of which we 

 may place the common Blue-bottle Fly (Musca vo- 

 mit oria), and the Flesh-fly (Sarcophaga carnaria), 

 which do not exhibit quite so much forbearance, for 

 they not only visit our apartments in their winged 

 state, but also leave their progeny behind them upon 

 meat, without paying much regard, especially in the 

 case of the Blue-bottle, as to whether it be cooked 

 or no. In the hot weather, in fact, these flies are 

 amongst the greatest enemies (next to the hot wea- 

 ther itself, which must be sufficiently trying) with 

 which the cook has to contend : no cover seems to be 

 close enough to keep out the marauders, as soon as it 

 is removed, one or two Blue-bottles make their escape, 

 and masses of large white eggs, dexterously introduced 

 into the most secret crevices of the meat, soon show 

 what has been their object in visiting it. Two species 

 are commonly known under the name of Blue-bottles, 

 the Musca vomitoria and M. erythrocephala. They 

 are exceedingly similar in their appearance, and both 

 have the lower part of the head red, but in the former 

 species this is clothed with tawny, and in the latter 

 with black hairs. Their habits, however, are exactly 

 the same: they deposit their eggs upon animal matters 

 of all kinds, which the larvae hatched from them, well 



