462 
GAD-FLY. 
the opinion of a learned naturalist. Dr. Shaw, we 
may place the zimb of Mr. Bruce among the num- 
ber. This gentleman, however, does not pretend 
to determine whether it ought to be referred to this 
genus or not ; he was only led to suppose so from 
some particulars in its history which corresponded 
with the other species. The insect has long been 
a wanderer ; no one has decided its place in the 
system, and the present attempt to fix its situation 
may possibly be rejected by future entomologists. 
Mr. Bruce, who had several opportunities of ob- 
serving this fly during his residence in Abyssinia, 
has described it in the following manner : “ It is in 
size very little larger than a bee, and its wings, 
which are broader than those of a bee, placed sepa- 
rate, like those of a fly ; they are of pure gauze, 
without colour or spot upon them ; the head is 
large, the upper jaw or lip is sharp, and has at the 
end of it a strong pointed hair of about a quarter of 
an inch long : the lower jaw has two of these pointed 
hairs ; and this pencil of hairs, when joined together, 
makes a resistance to the finger nearly equal to that 
of a strong hog’s bristle. Its legs are serrated in 
the inside, and the whole covered with brown hair 
or down. As soon as this plague appears, and their 
buzzing is heard, all the cattle forsake their food, 
and run wildly about the plain till they die, worn 
out with fatigue, fright, and hunger. No remedy 
remains for the residents on such spots, but to leave 
the black earth and hasten down to the sands of 
Atbara ; and there they remain while the rains last. 
