6174 



Insects. 



and blistered in this way. Such are the ways of Providence, meant in 

 kindness no doubt. It is the ' susurrus,' or whistle they make that 

 frightens the cattle [?], and not the infliction. And what is too re- 

 markable to be omitted, we learn, from the very ancient poet Avienus, 

 that these isles, abounding in forests, wild cattle and these flies, were 

 known by ]he name of (Estrimerides before they obtained from the 

 Romans the name of Britannia." 



The etymology may be sound, but with this very important modifi- 

 cation, that (as was first distinctly proved by Mr. W. S. MacLeay, in 

 the 14th volume of the Linnaean Society's 'Transactions') the oiarpog 

 of the Greeks was a "brize-fly" and not a "gad-fly" (or ffistrus of 

 modern nomenclature) ! In the infancy of Entomology it w^as likely 

 that the two groups should be confounded : for it having probably 

 been ascertained that the bots infesting cattle were fly-maggots, 

 eventually becoming flies, nothing could be more natural than to sup- 

 pose that the flies which were continually seen to torment the beasts 

 were the producers of those maggots ; and thus the prevalent error 

 which has been continued even to our times, not merely by such an 

 observer as James Bruce, of Kinnaird, in his well known account of the 

 zimb, but even by the venerable Bracy Clark, who has actually made 

 a particular study of the GEstrida3 during a long life. 



There is more to say on the subject of etymology. The names 

 Tzetze and CEstrus with Tsaltymlya and Zimb of Bruce, as likewise 

 our English name Brize or Breeze^ have obvious reference to the 

 "buzz" or "hum" (words of similar origin) of the insect so denomi- 

 nated. But the (Estridae of modern Entomology do not produce a 

 sound when on the wing ! Whereas many of the blood-sucking flies 

 {Tabanidce, &c.), which are the chief tormentors of our cattle, are re- 

 markable for the loud buzzing which they produce when flying about 

 their victims ; analogous to the " hum " of our tiny foes the gnats, alias 

 mosquitos. 



Bracy Clark fails to discriminate the two groups, when, in his essay 

 of 1797, he remarks, that " The singular scene attending the attack on 

 Oestrus on the herd, has often been the subject of poetical description ; 

 but no one has more naturally and elegantly delineated it than the 

 bard of Mantua. 



" Est lucos Silaii circa, ilioibusqiie virentem 



Plurimus Alburnum volitaus, ciii Asilo nomen 



Romanurn est, CEstron Graii vcrtere vocantes. 



Asper, acerba sonans : quo tota exterrila sylvis 



Diflfugient armeuta ; furit mugitibus a^tber 



Coucussus, sylva^que et sicci ripa Tauagri." 



