182 DISEASE FATAL TO ALL DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



off, life would be unendurable. The well-known African 

 traveller, Andersson, says their bite has been not inaptly 

 likened to that of a flea. My experience is that it is far 

 more severe, and that about one in every ten bites (that 

 perhaps touches a nerve) closely resembles the sting of a 

 wasp or bee, as it will cause one when seated to spring up 

 as if pricked with a needle. As they are possessed of a 

 long probe, a thick flannel shirt offers no protection 

 against these most abominable of all created insects — • 

 direct descendants, no doubt, of the flies that plagued 

 Egypt. Though, during 1872-73, 1 had hunted elephants 

 on foot in fly-infested countries, yet never had I met with 

 them in sufficient numbers to cause much annoyance ; but 

 along the Chobe river, during the months of September and 

 October, hunger, thirst, fatigue, and all the other hard- 

 ships that must of necessity be endured by the elephant- 

 hunter, sank into insignificance as compared with the 

 continuous, unceasing irritation caused by the bites of the 

 * Tsetse ' flies by day, and three or four varieties of 

 jiiosquitoes by night. What a glorious field lies open 

 there for an enthusiastic entomologist ! I think that this 

 plague of ' Tse-tse ' flies, along the Chobe and Zambesi, is 

 due to the enormous numbers of buffaloes that frequent 

 their banks, as they always seem very partial to those 

 animals. The bite of this remarkable insect, as is well- 

 known, though fatal to all kinds of domestic animals, is 

 innocuous to every species of game, and to man. A 

 general belief exists, that amongst domestic animals, the 

 donkey, dog and goat are exceptions to this rule, but this 

 is a mistake, for I have seen all three die from the effect 

 of its bites. That all the natives living in the ' fly ' 

 country possess both dogs and goats I admit, but these 

 have been bred there from generation to generation, and 

 have become acclimatised, whereas, if you take either a 

 goat or a dog that has been bred outside the 'fly 'country, 

 into a district where the ' Tse-tse ' is found, it will die 

 in nine cases out of ten, and the original progenitors of 

 the animals the natives now possess were no doubt such 

 exceptions to the general rule. Even now, the natives 

 told me, out of a litter of pups, born in the country and 

 of acclimatised parents, some always die of 'fly ' symptoms. 

 The ' Tse-tse ' fly is about the same size as a common 



