THE BLUE-BOTTLE FLY. 181 



their coiirse, with respect either to its direction or 

 extent. An idea that it has occasionally some such 

 effect, pervades the words of Florizel, when he 

 says — 



" So we profess 



Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies, 

 Of every wind that blows." 



Winter's Tale, Act IV. Sc. III. 



The common blue-bottle fly {Musca vomitoria), on 

 which those observations were made, is so well known, 

 that it furnishes, in " King Henry the Fourth," an 

 epithet applied by the abusive tongue of DoU Tear- 

 sheet, to the beadle who had her in custody. She 

 reviles him as a "blue-bottle rogue," a term evidently 

 suggested by the similarity of the colour of his cos- 

 tume to that of the insect now under consideration. 

 The habits of the fly, so busy, noisy, and restless, 

 have caused Washington Irving to introduce it as an 

 object of comparison in his inimitable story of the 

 " Spectre Bridegroom." Baron Von Landshort, " a 

 fuming, bustling little man," is busied with pre- 

 parations for the expected arrival of his son-in-law ; 

 and we are told, " He worried from top to bot- 

 tom of the castle, with an air of infinite anxiety ; 

 he continually called the servants from their work to 

 exhort them to be diligent ; and buzzed about every 

 hall and chamber, as idly restless and as impor- 



