MUSCA DIABOLICA. 97 



of the flies seen on the Downs, " to overlook creatures that 

 conduct themselves in such a wildly eccentric manner. 

 One big yellow fly like a honey-bee comes directly at you 

 with a loud hostile hum or buzz, hovers for a few moments, 

 dashes away in a straight line, turns off at a tangent, and, 

 rushing back again, proceeds with extraordinary velocity 

 to describe curves and circles, parallel lines, angles, and 

 other geometric figures, in the air ; and finally drops down 

 within a few inches of you, to remain motionless as a fly 

 carved out on a yellow pebble until the impulse sends him 

 off again. What his motives are, what it all means, we 

 are unable to guess; we can only conclude in our igno- 

 rance, judging from appearances, that he is mad ; that in 

 fact, the proverbial March hare is a pre-eminently sane, 

 sensible creature in comparison. Somewhat of this light- 

 headedness is, I imagine, seen in most of the flies, from the 

 burliest blue-bottle to the small gilded variety. What 

 would it be, I wonder, if these minute creatures grew to the 

 size of ducks and geese ? Our whole time would be spent 

 in watching their amazing, meaningless antics ; nothing 

 else would be talked or even thought about in the world. 

 In the end we should become strictly nocturnal in order to 

 be out of their way, or we should ourselves go mad in their 

 company." 



Nor has a fly any power of endurance. This I discov- 

 ered by accident. One of these gentry went to sleep inside 

 my mosquito net, and, rising with the lark, he commenced 

 to tease me. I opened part of the curtains and endeavoured 

 to chase him out. In vain ; the fly simply laughed at me. 

 The iniquities of this brute had been great. I saw that 

 there was nothing left but war to the death. I closed the 

 curtains, took up a strategic position in the middle of the 

 bed, pulled at the part of the curtains on which the fly had 

 settled. He at once made for the opposite side. Before he 

 had time to reach it this was violently agitated by me ; not 

 being able to settle on territory in the throes of an earth- 

 quake the fly made for another portion of the curtains. 

 13 



