INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. H-9 



ance and motions are at this time so grotesque, clumsy, 

 and seemingly unnatural, that we are tempted rather to 

 laugh at the poor beasts than to pity them, though evi- 

 dently in a situation of great terror and distress. The 

 cause of all this agitation and restlessness is a small gad- 

 fly, (CE. Bovis, L.,) less than the horse-bee, the object of 

 which, though it be not to bite them, but merely to ovi- 

 posit in their hides, is not put into execution without 

 giving them considerable pain. Virgil, in his Georgics, 

 has beautifully and accurately described the effects of the 

 approach and assault of the CEstrus upon the cattle. As 

 the passage has not been very correctly translated, I 

 shall turn poet on the occasion, and attempt to give it 

 you in a new dress. 



Through waving groves : ' where Selo's torrent flows, 

 And where, Alborno, thy green Ilex grows, 

 Myriads of insects flutter in the gloom 

 (CEstrus in Greece, Asilus nam'd at Rome) 

 Fierce and of cruel hum. By the dire sound 

 Driven from the woods and shady glens around 

 The universal herds in terror fly ; 

 Their lowings shake the woods and shake the sky, 

 And Negro's arid shore 



When oxen are employed in agriculture, the attack 

 of this fly is often attended with great danger, since they 

 then become perfectly unmanageable ; and, whether in 

 harness or yoked to the plough, will run directly for- 

 ward. At the season when the CEstrus infests them, 

 close attention should be paid, and their harness so con- 

 structed that they may easily be let loose. 



a Reaumur observes that the CEstri infest cattle principally in 

 woodland countries, and not in the plains, iv. 506. 



