CAPTAIN GIBBONS' OBSEEVATIONS. 237 



" The Tsetse is in reality very little bigger than the 

 English house-fly, though his wings being longer he appears 

 to be much larger. The fore part of the body is so hard 

 that more than an ordinary pinch is necessary to deprive 

 this insect of life. I have frequently thrown flies away 

 for dead after giving them a vigorous squeeze, only to 

 see them fly away before reaching the ground. . . . 

 The proboscis of the Tsetse protrudes in a horizontal 

 direction and does not point downwards, as is the case 

 with other flies. It is about one-eighth of an inch long, 

 and penetrates the skin through a thick flannel shirt 

 without an effort. The fly is frequently to be heard giving 

 vent to the high-pitched buzzing note which gives it a 

 name, but when advancing to attack he noiselessly makes 

 straight for his mark without all the preparatory fuss 

 employed by others of his genus. His tread is so light 

 that the sharp prick of the proboscis is generally the first 

 indication of his whereabouts. The Tsetse avoids open 

 plains and is only to be found in forest or bush, and even 

 there the limits of his habitat are so clearly defined, and 

 the fly-belts so permanently established, as to give rise to 

 much speculation as to the reason why one of two con- 

 tiguous disti'icts of a similar character should teem with 

 ' fly,' while the other is quite free from the pest. Certainly 

 where buffalo is thick the Tsetse is numerous — generally, 

 at least — ^but this rule does not necessarily apply to most 

 game. Districts occur in which game abounds, which, 

 though within measurable reach of fly-belts, are perfectly 

 free of their presence. There is much mystery and conse- 

 quent speculation about the nature and peculiarities of the 

 Tsetse. Hard facts are known well enough, but the 

 scientist has not yet arrived on the scene who can explain 

 its raison d'etre and the paradoxes of its nature. It is 

 commonly supposed in South Africa that the fly lays its 

 ova in the skin of the wild buffalo, but this is not so, as 

 experiments by Mr. Trimen, formerly curator of the Cape 

 Town Museum, have proved ; still, where the wild buffalo 

 is to be found in large numbers the Tsetse invariably 

 teems, and yet the domestic ox succumbs more readily to 

 the bite than any other animal, except perhaps the horse, 

 whose first cousin the zebra wanders through belts unhurt. 

 So, too, the wild dog and jackal are impervious, but few 



