62 NATURE IN DOWNLAND 



jet black body he wears a broad transverse crimson 

 bar. Of this pretty, most singular fly there is a 

 pleasant story to tell. In August, when he abounds 

 most, wild thyme is in the height of its blossoming 

 season in many places on the downs, both in the hills 

 and in the deep vales and hollows; and its round 

 patches of deep green creeping plants, purpled over 

 with bloom, are exceedingly conspicuous on the paler 

 green or yellow or grey-brown of the turf. To these 

 small islands of fragrance the fly resorts, and the 

 whole island or patch may sometimes be found swarm- 

 ing with them. 



Does the unentomological reader happen to know 

 an insect, a fly, of quaint and curious aspect, laiown to 

 many persons by the good honest vernacular name of 

 cow-dung fly, and regarded by some good people as an 

 ugly, repulsive-looking, hump-backed, hairy creature ? 

 It is an Asilus — a big fly that slays and devours other 

 flies, even as we kill and eat cows, sheep, and many 

 other creatures more innocent and beautiful than our- 

 selves. In spring this fly spreads all over the country, 

 especially in meadows and grass lands, where he ex- 

 hibits that extraordinary predilection for cow-dung 

 which gives him his name. To a piece of fresh cow- 

 dung they flock in such numbers that it is soon covered 

 with a dense mass of them, their yellow, hairy, round- 

 backed bodies making it look like an embossed mound 

 of dark gold. The exact hue closely resembles what 

 we call " old gold," or gold without the glint. When 



