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those previously known of this very great horse pest, which it is of 
service to note, as it is far from unlikely that, if attention was 
given to the subject, sudden unaccountable unruliness of horses 
elsewhere might be traced to presence of the Forest Fly. 
Pkevention and Remedies. —The attack having been up to 
1895 mainly confined to one locality in this country, I have rarely 
had it brought under my personal observation, excepting in regard 
to such investigation of the habits and characteristics of the fly as 
could be studied in captivity; but in the researches relatively to 
the (then coming) autumn military manoeuvres in the New Forest, 
much information was placed in my hands by observers in various 
ways qualified to give trustworthy notes of practical treatment, 
from which I give the following extracts. 
The first, regarding method of attack, symptoms of its presence, 
and method of removal of the fly, are a portion of some notes 
placed in my hands by the courtesy of Mr. Thomas B. Goodall, 
F.R.C.Y.S., Christchurch, Hants, omitting some points of technical 
detail:— 
“A strange horse is alarmed and frightened because of his 
inability to dislodge the fly, its power of prehension being so great 
that the horse’s tail is powerless to remove it, and it crawls over 
the body of the horse, and does not remain quiescent until it finds 
a thin part of the skin, where in the Forest ponies it may some¬ 
times be seen in clusters. . . . When a strange horse has a 
‘ Forester,’ as the fly is called locally, on him, he shows symptoms 
which at once tell us who have experience in the matter what ails 
him. He has a frightened look, lays his ears back, and makes short 
stamps and kicks with his feet; and if the fly is not taken from 
him he will sometimes sweat profusely, kick violently, and even 
roll. Most strange horses become accustomed to it in a few days, 
but some never do. 
“I do not think the fly ever goes into a stable of its own accord, 
and if the horse is freed from them before going into the stable he 
is safe from attack until he is taken out again ; and the custom 
here is to search the horse well over, particularly in the fly’s 
favourite haunts, before he is taken into the stable after being in 
the ‘ fly ’ district, for we never find them away from the Forest , unless 
they are taken by horses. 
“ There is some danger, to one not accustomed to the habits of 
the fly, and also of the horse, in attempting to dislodge the fly. It 
will when disturbed make short flights from one part of the body 
