NOXIOUS INSECTS. 105 



There is an oestrus known in these parts to 

 every ploughboy, which, because it is omitted by 

 Linnaeus, is also passed over by late writers ; and 

 that is the curvicauda of old Moufet, mentioned 

 by Derham in his Physico -Theology, p. 250 : an 

 insect worthy of remark, for depositing its eggs 

 as it flies, in so dexterous a manner on the single 

 hairs of the legs and flanks of grass -horses. But 

 then Derham is mistaken when he advances that 

 this oestrus is the parent of that wonderful star- 

 tailed maggot which he mentions afterwards ; for 

 more modern entomologists have discovered that 

 singular production to be derived from the egg of 

 the musca chameleon. See Geofrroy, t. 17, f. 4. 



A full history of noxious insects, hurtful in the 

 field, garden, and house, suggesting all the known 

 and likely means of destroying them, would be al- 

 lowed by the public to be a most useful and im- 

 portant work. What knowledge there is of this 

 sort lies scattered, and wants to be collected ; great 

 improvements would soon follow of course. A 

 knowledge of the properties, economy, propaga- 

 tion, and, in short, of the life and conversation, of 

 these animals, is a necessary step to lead us to 

 some method of preventing their depredations. 



As far as I am a judge, nothing would recom- 

 mend entomology more than some neat plates 

 that should well express the generic distinctions 

 of insects according to Linnseus; for I am well 

 assured that many people would study insects, 

 could they set out with a more adequate notion of 

 those distinctions than can be conveyed at first by 

 words alone. 



XXXV. 



HAPPENING to make a visit to my neighbour's 

 peacocks, I could not help observing, that the 



