NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 73 



For a long time I have desired my relation to look out for these 

 birds in Andalusia; and now he writes me word that, for the first 

 time, he saw one dead in the market on the third of September. 



When the oedicnemus flies it stretches out its legs straight behind, 

 like an heron. I am, &c. 



LETTEE XXXIV. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBOENE, March 30th, 1771. 



DEAR SIR, There is an insect with us, especially on chalky districts, 

 which is very troublesome and teasing all the latter end of the summer, 

 getting into people's skins, especially those of women and children, and 

 raising tumours which itch intolerably. This animal (which we call an 

 harvest bug) is very minute, scarce discernible to the naked eye ; of a 

 bright scarlet colour, and of the genus of Acarus. They are to be met 



1. ATHALIA CENTIFOLIA. 2. BLACK DOLPHIN. 3. HALTICA NEMORUM. 



with in gardens on kidneybeans, or any legumens, but prevail only in 

 the hot months of summer. Warreners, as some have assured me, are 

 much infested by them on chalky downs ; where these insects swarm 

 sometimes to so infinite a degree as to discolour their nets, and to give 

 them a reddish cast, while the men are so bitten as to be thrown into 

 fevers. 



There is a small long shining fly in these parts very troublesome to 

 the housewife, by getting into the chimneys, and laying its eggs in the 

 bacon while it is drying ; these eggs produce maggots called jumpers, 



me entirely ; that there is in the great bustard neither an orifice under the 

 tongue, nor a gular pouch. He writes, ' The following was the result of my dis- 

 section of a full-grown bustard, with the view of obtaining a preparation of 

 the alleged gular pouch for the Physiological Series, No. 772, Q. (Museum of Col. 

 of Surgeons). The head of a bustard, otis tarda, with the mouth and fauces 

 exposed, showing the glandular orifices between the rami of the lower jaw, the 

 tongue, glottis, internal nostrils, and Eustachian orifice. There is no trace of a 

 gular pouch.'" 



