146 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS'. 



one instance that he witnessed, the miserable creature 

 was so exhausted by continual suction, that it fell, and 

 afterwards died in great agonies a . 



No quadruped is more infested by the (Estrns, or gad- 

 fly, sometimes also called the breese, than the horse. In 

 this country no fewer than three species attack it. The 

 most common sort, known by the name of the horse-bee 

 (CE. Equi, Clark), deposits its eggs (which being covered 

 with a slimy substance adhere to the hairs) on such parts 

 of the body as the animal can reach with its tongue ; and 

 thus, unconscious of what it is doing, it unwarily introduces 

 into its own citadel the troops of its enemy. — Another 

 species ((E. hcemoi'rhoidalis, L.) is still more troublesome 

 to it, ovipositing upon the lips ; and in its endeavours to 

 effect this, from the excessive titillation it occasions, giving 

 the poor beast the most distressing uneasiness. At the 

 sight of this fly horses are always much agitated, tossing 

 their heads about in the air to drive it away ; and, if this 

 does not answer, galloping off to a distant part of their 

 pasture, and, as their last resource, taking refuge in the 

 water, where the gad-flies never follow them. We learn 

 from Reaumur, that in France the grooms, when they 

 observe any bots (which is the vulgar name for the larvae 

 and pupae of GEstri) about the anus of a horse or in its 

 dung, thrust their hand into the passage to search for 

 more ; but this seems a useless precaution, which must 

 occasion the animal great pain to answer no good end : 

 for when the bots are passing through the body, havino- 

 ceased feeding, they can do no further injury. In Sweden, 

 as De Geer informs us, they act much more sensibly : 



a De Geer, vii. 158. 



