INSECTS AND VERMES, 
349 
approach tlie place, these insects begin to be alarmed, and 
with a sharp and hostile sound, dash and strike round the 
heads and faces of intruders. I have been often interrupted 
myself while contemplating the grandeur of the scenery 
around me, and have thought myself in danger of being 
stung. 
WASPS. 
Wasps abound in woody wild districts far from neighbour- 
hoods ; they feed on flowers, and catch flies and caterpillars 
to carry to their young. Wasps make their nests with the 
raspings of sound timber ; hornets, with what they gnaw 
from decayed : these particles of wood are kneaded up with 
a mixture of saliva from their bodies and moulded into combs. 
When there is no fruit in the gardens, wasps eat flies, 
and suck the honey from flowers, from ivy blossoms, and 
umbellated plants : they carry off also flesh from butchers' 
shambles.^ 
OESTRUS CURVICAUDA. 
This insect lays its nits or eggs on horses' legs, flanks, &c., 
each on a single hair. The maggots when hatched do not 
enter the horses' skins, but fall to the ground. It seems to 
abound most in moist moorish places, though sometimes 
seen in the uplands.^ 
NOSE ELY. 
About the beginning of July, a species of fly (Musca) ob- 
tains, which proves very tormenting to horses, trying still 
to enter their nostrils and ears, and actually laying their 
eggs in the latter of those organs, or perhaps in both. 
When these abound, horses in woodland districts become 
^ In tlie year 1775 wasps abounded so prodigiously in this neigh- 
bourhood, that, in the month of August, no less than seven or eight 
nests were ploughed up in one field : of which there were several 
instances, as I was informed. 
In the spring, about the beginning of April, a single wasp is some- 
times seen, which is of a larger size than usual ; this I imagine is the 
queen or female wasp, the mother of the future swarm. — Mark wick. 
2 See Letter XXXIV. to Pennant, page 107, note 2. — Ed. 
