82 
Mr. Clark’s Appendix to a Treatise 
depositing its ovum on the back of the beast. It is true, that Bruce in his 
‘ Travels in Abyssinia’ has given the figure of a fly, which he supposes might be 
the object alluded to by Moses; but on referring to his figure (pi. 39), it has 
no resemblance to this genus of flies, the Cuterebrce, but is rather, though with 
something fictitious about it, allied to the genus Stomoxys, or perhaps Tabanus, 
both of which genera are certainly silent flies in their attacks upon the cattle.” 
In this historical part of my essay I would desire also to insert the follow¬ 
ing passage: “ We are informed by Festus Avienus, cited by Bochart, in his 
work entitled c Chanaan,’ lib. i. cap. 39. p. 723, that Himilco, a Carthaginian, 
had been sent by the senate of Carthage to discover the western shores and 
parts of Europe; that he successfully accomplished the voyage, and that he 
wrote a journal of it, which Festus Avienus had seen ; and that in that jour¬ 
nal the Islands of Britain are mentioned by the name OEstrymnides Insulae, 
probably on account of their being greatly infested by the (Estrum or Gadfly. 
Which singular passage, if it can be relied upon, would appear to indicate 
that, at this very early date, (perhaps the very first and earliest account of 
these islands in existence,) our island was covered with immense forests 
abounding in cattle, which caused it to become the favourite resort of those 
troublesome insects, so much so as to be a leading object of remark to those 
adventurers. 
At page 5 of the above essay on the CEstri, I would desire to rescind the 
following lines: “ and believe that the agony the fly occasions in depositing 
the egg in the skin will account sufficiently for the violent agitation of the herd 
without this sound;” substituting for it the following: “A further and appa¬ 
rently positive testimony has reached me, of an ear- and eye-witness, that the 
female fly in depositing her egg does really accompany it with a noise most 
frightful to the cattle. A Herefordshire farmer of my acquaintance informed 
me last summer, that when he has been at plough, and especially about mid¬ 
day, and with the sun shining bright and clear, he has repeatedly been sur¬ 
prised in his operations by the arrival of this unwelcome guest, whose visit 
caused him serious annoyance, the animals attached to the plough (oxen) be¬ 
coming perfectly ungovernable and scampering off with his machine. And he 
further states, that he can with his lips imitate the noise these flies make so 
exactly as to start a team of oxen by doing it near them. It is not an easy 
