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British Deer and their Horns 
German entomologist and authority on this group of flies, gives as to the manner in which 
the fly effects the deposition of its grubs or maggots in the nostrils of its victim. In 
quoting this account he continues :— 
He was fortunate in witnessing the attack of some females upon a herd of deer, and has given 
a graphic account of the way in which the fly effects the deposition of its grubs or maggots in the 
nostrils of its victim. He witnessed the process on a hot, sunny day in May, just after a thunderstorm, 
with the air calm and sultry. The insects were flying about the heads of the deer in the hot sunshine, 
circling noiselessly round and round in a vertical direction. The poor quadruped follows the enemy 
THE BIG STAG OF GLEN ETTIVE 
Photograph of wild deer taken from nature in the forest of the Black Mount. 
with its eye, and begins to stamp and snort indignantly. Suddenly the fly flings itself down upon 
the open nostril of its victim, not, however, to remain there, but only to fly off again and repeat 
this irritating process time after time. The deer begins now to sneeze violently and to kick, shaking 
its head up and down between its outstretched legs, or rubbing its nose with its hind feet in its 
endeavours to soothe the irritation. Sometimes the little pest is dashed to the ground by the forcible 
sneezing of the deer, but only to rise again and fly slowly away, to repeat the attack on some other 
member of the herd. Sometimes in this way a single fly will produce a marked effect upon the 
whole herd, for they are seen to prick their ears, lift up their heads in alarm, and close their nostrils. 
As a consequence of the successive visits of the fly, first to one and then to another of the frightened 
animals, there commences quite a strange movement in the herd — the snorting and stamping pass 
through it in a peculiar rhythmical manner, three or four times, until either the insect is satisfied and 
