152 Flies [CH. 
and fall to the ground, where they pupate and form 
almost black pupa cases. This takes place in the early 
part of the summer, and about a month later the flies 
come out. They are very like small humble bees. 
They fly about on hot days and produce a low humming 
noise which terrifies the cattle and causes them to 
rush about wildly. On tanning the hides of warbled 
cattle the skins are found to have holes in them, each 
hole being caused by a maggot. The surface of the 
meat of infected cattle has jelly-like patches on it and 
is known to butchers as “licked beef.” These parts 
have to be cut away. 
The presence of adult flies near cows may cause 
injury as the cattle rush aimlessly about in their 
endeavour to get away from them. 
Remedial Measures. 
It has been and is still the custom to smear the 
backs of cattle with some nasty smelling preparation 
just before the fly appears in summer; this is done 
with the view of preventing the warble flies from 
laying their eggs there. This method of treatment is 
founded on a false account of the life history of the fly, 
and such experiments as have been made tend to show 
that smearing of the backs does little good as we should 
expect, knowing that the eggs are laid on the legs and 
shoulders. Cattle which have had their backs covered 
with cloths from June until the end of September have 
been found to have warbles on their backs in the 
following spring. 
The warble fly does not like shade and does not go 
near cattle standing in water. It is very essential 
that cattle should be provided with a necessary 
