78 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



particularly repulsive pest. He finds that the larvae possess 

 great vitality and powers of fasting ; newly-hatched larvae 

 (which appear in about forty- eight hours after the laying of 

 the eggs) lived for ten to twelve days without feeding, and of 

 three small larvae which were red, showing they had recently 

 sucked blood, put into a jar on September 23rd, while two were 

 dead and dried up on November 27th, one was still alive and 

 had even increased to a medium size. The pupation of some 

 large red larvae took place in a week after they had been bottled 

 up. Pupae, however, were far more delicate than larvae, and 

 were easily killed by movement of the sand with which they had 

 been enclosed. 



In the experimental jars the larvae burrowed in the sand 

 during the day, but were found crawling actively about on its 

 surface at night, nor did the light of a lamp close by diminish 

 their activity. Yet in nature, so natives agreed in informing the 

 author, the maggots bite by day if one lay down, so that the 

 reason why night was the chief time for their attacks seemed to 

 be that night is the usual sleeping time for humanity. 



It is possible, as Dr. Schwetz says, that the influence of 

 these maggots is more noxious than is supposed. At any rate, 

 considering their disgusting character, it is satisfactory to note 

 that they could be kept under control fairly easily, for he found 

 that, after giving rewards to native children for adult flies as well 

 as maggots during a couple of months, he could only get very few 

 of the latter, and those very small and in a fasting state. The 

 fly is a smoky-buff insect with darker markings, and the 

 males, which are nearly twice as numerous as the females, are 

 distinguished by a shorter abdomen. 



Transactions of the Paisley Naturalists' Society. Vol. ii. Paisley : 

 Alexander Gardney. 

 This neat little volume, the frontispiece of which is a coloured 

 map of the county of Renfrewshire, is chiefly occupied by lists 

 of the county plants, Macro -Lepidoptera, freshwater fishes and 

 land vertebrates, accompanied in some cases by notes. The 

 general get-up of the book and the character of the contents 

 reflect great credit on the Society which publishes it, though it 

 must be admitted that misprints are curiously numerous. 



