452 ZOOLOGY. 



the riccinus ; these last attach themselves to the dog and to 

 various birds. 



Natural size. 

 Fig. 439. The Tsetse-fly. 



[The tsetse fly ; copied from Dr. Livingstone's work on South 

 Africa, p. 571. The following interesting account of this remark- 

 ably destructive fly is taken from the work of the celebrated 

 traveller alluded to. 



<l The tsetse is not much larger than the common house-fly, 

 and is nearly of the same brown colour as the common honey-bee; 

 the after part of the body has three or four yellow bars across it ; 

 the wings project beyond this part considerably, and it is remark- 

 ably alert, avoiding most dexterously all attempts to capture it 

 with the hand at common temperatures ; in the cool of the 

 morning and evening it is less agile. Its peculiar buzz, when 

 once heard, can never be forgotten by the traveller whose means 

 of locomotion are domestic animals ; for it is well known that 

 the bite of this poisonous insect is certain death to the ox, horse, 

 und dog. In this journey, though we were not aware of any 

 great number having at any time lighted on our cattle, we lost 

 forty-three fine oxen by its bite. We watched the animals care- 

 fully, and believe that not a score of flies ^were ever upon them. 

 A most remarkable feature in the bite of the tsetse is its perfect 

 harmlessness in man and wild animals, and even calves, so long 

 as they continue to suck the cows. We never experienced the 

 slightest injury from them ourselves, personally, although we lived 

 two months in their habitat, which was in this case as sharply 

 defined as in many others, for the south bank of the Chobe was 

 infested by them, and the northern bank, where our cattle were 

 placed, only fifty yards distant, contained not a single specimen. 

 This was the more remarkable, as we often saw natives carrying 

 over raw meat to the opposite bank with many tsetse settled 

 upon it." 



