called Oistros hy the Ancients. 407 



able to account for this extraordinary agitation, I had formerly- 

 given way to the notion of some very painful infliction by the 

 Œdnis : but 1 am now led to question this opinion, inasmuch 

 as I can discover no instrument by which this etlect can be pro- 

 duced. The shrill sharp sound, which Virgil describes, was, I 

 dare say, not stated without some real ground ; and a friend of 

 mine actually informed me, that he was standing in a farm-yard 

 one day near some cattle, when one of these tlies entered and 

 approached them, and that he distinctly heard this shrill sound. 

 In confirmation of this account we may remark, that the wing- 

 scale, covei'ing the haltères, which has been supposed by Keller 

 to be the organ of sound, is particularly large in this insect ; 

 but further than this we dare not assert, but leave the point 

 for future investigation. We know from Linnaeus's own ac- 

 count, that the Œstrus Tarandi, or Rein-deer Bot, very simi- 

 lar in all respects to the Œ. Bovis, makes no sound while de- 

 positing its egg ; which again brings me into doubt upon this 

 matter. 



We next have to observe, in confirmation of the peculiar 

 effects of these insects upon the animals they infest, that those 

 of the Œstrifs of the Rein-deer, are equally singular and re- 

 markable ; and this fact we have from the indefatigable re- 

 searches of our immortal leader, I.innœus himself. He says, 

 speaking of the Œ. Tarandi, in his Lapland Tour, that as he 

 was in bed early one morning, he perceived a very ungrateful 

 smell, and when day-light appeared, "there were standing about 

 the cot a thousand of these Rein-deer, driven by old men, boys, 

 dogs, and women, who milked these animals. They appeared 

 to be under the apprehension of some invisible attack : the ani- 

 mals carried their heads aloft, their ears pricked up and ex- 

 tended, beating the ground, and kicking in the air with their 



VOL. XV. 3 G feet 



