154 NATURAL HISTORY 



while the men are so bitten as to be thrown 

 into fevers. 



There is a small long shining fly in these 

 parts very troublesome to the housewife, 

 J^y getting into the chimnies, and laying its 

 eggs in the bacon while it is drying : these 

 eggs produce maggots called jumpers, 

 which, harbouring in the gammons and 

 best parts of the hogs, eat down to the bone, 

 and make great waste. This fly I suspect 

 to be a variety of the nmsca pulris of Lin- 

 ncBus : it is to be seen in the Summer in 

 farm-kitchens on the bacon racks and about 

 the mantel-pieces, and on the ceilings. 



The insect that infests turnips and many 

 crops in the garden (destroying often whole 

 fields while in their seedling leaves) is an 

 animal that wants to be better known. The 

 country people here call it the turnip-fly and 

 hlack dolphin ; but I know it to be one of the 

 coleoptera ; the chrysomela oleracea^ salta- 



toria^femoribus posticis crassissimisy In 

 very hot Summers they abound to an amaz- 

 ing degree, and as you walk in a field or in 

 a garden, make a pattering like rain, by 



