Ann] AND SYMBOLS. 13 



summer, in such numbers as to appear like vast volumes of smoke. 

 Their attacks are always directed against every description of 

 quadruped, and so potent is the poison they communicate, 

 that even an ox is unable to withstand its influence, for he 

 always expires in less than two hours. This results, not so 

 much from the virulence of the poison, as that every vulner- 

 able part is simultaneously covered by numbers of these most 

 destructive insects ; when the wretched animals, frenzied with 

 pain, rush wild through the fields till death puts a period to 

 their sufferings, or they accelerate dissolution by plunging 

 headlong in the rivers. During life's pilgrimage a man has 

 sometimes to pass through scenes which are fraught with 

 petty annoyances. They harass him like these flies. He may 

 successfully defy several ; but when he is simultaneously 

 attacked by them on all hands he often utterly collapses, or 

 oes mad. no. 



o 



Our Allotted Annoyances. 



The gad-fly or breeze-fly of the sheep, (Estrus (Ceplialemyia) 

 ovis, has obtained notoriety on account of its attacking those 

 animals. Even at the sight of this insect the sheep feels the 

 greatest terror. As soon as one of them appears the flock 

 becomes disturbed, the sheep that is attacked shakes its head 

 when it feels the fly on its nostril, and at the same time strikes 

 the ground violently with its fore feet ; it then commences to 

 run here and there, holding its nose near the ground, smelling 

 the grass, and looking about anxiously to see if it is still pur- 

 sued. It is to avoid the attacks of the Cephalemyia that 

 during the hot days of summer sheep lie down with their 

 nostrils buried in dusty ruts, or stand up with their heads 

 lowered between their fore-legs, and their noses nearly in con- 

 tact with the ground. When these poor beasts are in the open 

 country, they are observed assembled with their nostrils against 

 each other and very near the ground, so that those which occupy 

 the outside are alone exposed. It seems singular that an animal 

 so thoroughly harmless as the sheep should be tormented in 

 this manner. Yet so it is. There appears to be a law running 

 through creation ordaining to each creature certain allotted 



