DIPTERA : HABITS. 419 



man their prey, by sucking his blood, whilst some either 

 attack our cattle in like manner, or deposit their eggs upon 

 their bodies, within which the parasitic larvae feed; others 

 deposit their eggs, or young, upon our growing corn, and 

 upon our prepared food of various kinds. 



Many species reside in woods, in meadows, marshes, and 

 in our habitations ; others move with dancing feet upon the 

 spray of the waves, and even upon the snows of the polar 

 regions. Many are attached to plants, upon the flowers of 

 which they abound, sucking the honeyed sweets, without 

 giving the preference to any particular plant, whilst some are 

 confined to a single species of flower ; but it is upon the star- 

 like anthemis of our meadows that the majority seem to revel 

 with the greatest delight. During the summer and autumn 

 the flies are attracted to om- orchards, in order to destroy our 

 fruits, whilst some species delight in the honey dew of the 

 aphides, or the fluids which escape from the wounds of trees. 

 The domestic fly feeds alike upon all kinds of household pro- 

 visions ; and other species, which so closely resemble it in 

 size and appearance as to deceive an ordinary observer, are 

 parasitic upon the nests of various solitary bees. Nothing, 

 indeed, can be more amusing than to watch one of the latter 

 following the laborious insect, the young of which she is about 

 to supplant by her own, peering about into the mouth of the 

 nest, and cautiously making her entrance, in order to deposit 

 her own eggs, when the bee has, with great toil, completed 

 her nest, and deposited her store of honey-paste for the food 

 of her ow n progeny. 



The order was established by Aristotle, the great father of 

 zoology, under the name which is still retained for it ; and 

 since the days of Linnaeus, by whom its distribution was at- 

 tempted, various naturalists have contributed to raise it to the 

 rank which it has now attained, although it has not been a 

 general favourite with our amateurs. It is to Beaumur and 



