42 VAKIOUS KINDS OF FLIES. 



admonish you that Flies are not all of the same form and 

 species. There are black Flies and blue Flies, green Flies 

 and particoloured Flies, big Flies and little Flies ; and here 

 we must notice that the age of young Flies is by no means, 

 like that of young people, to be estimated by their size. 



The Fly is a perfect Insect (or Imago), having already 

 passed through its two preparatory stages of transformation, 

 those of Larva and Pupa (see vignette), corresponding to what, 

 with the Butterfly, is more generally known as Caterpillar and 

 Chrysalis ; so that, like the Butterfly, when winged it grows 

 no more. Those middle-sized Fly gentry, also nearly equal- 

 sized, which form the main body of our parlour visitants, are 

 altogether a different species to those of much lesser or greater 

 magnitude, such as some tiny frequenters of flowers, the 

 bouncing Blue-bottle, and the black and grey-chequered Blow- 

 Fly, those pests pre-eminent of the larder, which, as every 

 cook knoweth, are neither 



" Hatched on the road nor in the stable bred." 



Numerous gay coloured varieties may be seen between spring 

 and autumn and in September nearly all together, grouped in a 

 tableau vivant, settled and sipping on the honeyed clusters of 

 the Michaelmas daisy, that last starry heaven of their existence, 

 at all events for the year. Later still, towards the end of Oc- 

 tober and beginning of November, when taking a noon-day walk 

 under a southern ivy-crested wall, you may be sure to see some 

 or all of them come out to meet you from their dark green bush 



