88 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



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 chamceleon ; see Geoffroy, t. xvii. 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 allowed by the public 

 to be a most useful and important 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, propagation, 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 recommend 

 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. 



LETTER XXXV. 



Selborne, 1771. 



Happening to make a visit to my neighbour's peacocks, I 

 could not help observing that the trains of those magnificent 

 birds appear by no means to be their tails ; those long 



