22 
said to be especially attacked; also the inner parts of the thighs, 
and, speaking more generally, the abdomen, flanks, and also the 
upper part of the fore legs near the body. 
The flies certainly feed to some extent by blood-sucking, as 
might be presumed from the nature of the proboscis enclosing the 
sucking tube; nevertheless, locally, and by those well used to 
observation, it has been told me so often that they feed on the 
moisture amongst the hair, or on “perspiration given off by cattle 
[horses, of course, included] during the period of their activity, i. e. 
the summer months,” that it seems very likely that this also occurs. 
Also, in my own observations of the habits of the fly in captivity, it 
appeared to me that the great power of sweeping surfaces possessed 
by the very flexible end of the long sucking-tube, which the insect 
could lengthen or withdraw at pleasure, pointed to the possible 
drawing in of fluid for food from the surface of the skin of infested 
animals, as well as from beneath it. 
In regard to the important matter of locality where this pest to 
horses, cattle, and to a lesser degree to some other animals, was 
known to exist, specimens from Dorsetshire, as well as from the 
New Forest, have for some years been in the entomological 
collections of the Mus. of Nat. Hist, at South Kensington, but to 
these we can now add localities in North and South Wales. 
Consequently on the enquiries set on foot in 1895 by the editor 
of the ‘Veterinary Record,’ information was sent me, with speci¬ 
mens of the fly accompanying, of this H. equina being found in 
the valley running from Portmadoc on the seaside in Carnarvon¬ 
shire, North Wales, to Beddgelert, at the foot of Snowdon, about 
eight miles distant. In this district, where ponies are kept on the 
mountains in the summer, and a herd of them on the lowlands 
both summer and winter, and where, likewise, there was much 
horse traffic along the road in the summer season, the flies were 
noticeable from the beginning of June to the middle of September. 
The flies sent me were captured on one of the coach-horses employed 
on the above route. 
In August, 1898, I was favoured by Dr. D. Thomas, Medical 
Officer of Health of the Pontardawe Rural District Council in 
Glamorganshire, with specimens of H. equina found in the parish 
of Ystradgynlais, in Breconshire, with the comment that “ a more 
terrible nuisance to some horses I have never known.” About three 
weeks later Dr. Thomas forwarded me some more specimens caught 
on a hillside farm about four miles from Neath, Glamorganshire. 
Thus localities both in South and in North Wales are added to 
