103 
NATURAL HISTORY 
For a long time I have desired my relation to look out 
for these birds in Andalusia ; and now lie writes me word 
that, for the first time, he saw one dead in the market on 
the 3rd of September.^ 
When the (Edicnemus flies it stretches out its legs 
straight behind^ like a heron. 
i LETTER XXXIY. 
TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 
Selboene, March 30, 1771. 
HERE is an insect with us, especially on 
chalky districts, which is very troublesome 
and teasing all the latter end of the summer, 
getting into people's skins, especially those 
of women and children, and raising tumours 
w;hich itch intolerably. This animal (which we call a har- 
vest bug) is very minute, scarce discernible to the naked 
eye, of a bright scarlet colour, and of the genus of Acarus. 
They are to be met with in gardens on kidney beans, or any 
legumens, but prevail only in the hot months of summer. 
Warreners, as some have assured me, are much infested by 
them on chalky downs ; where these insects swarm some- 
times to so infinite a degree as to discolour their nets, and 
to give them a reddish cast, 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 by getting into the chimneys 
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 
^ Mr. Howard Saunders, in his " List of the Birds of Southern Spain" 
(Ibis, 1871, p. 386), includes the stone curlew as " common and resident, 
frequenting dry watercourses, and the most arid plains, where it deposits 
its eggs." — Ed. 
