146 THE COMMON HOUSE-FLY. 
haps such a paper should have been read at a time when the 
supply of flies exceeded the demand for them, and not now 
in mid-winter, when, as the commercial papers have it, the 
market in flies is dull. To study flies we should have them 
about, so that they can he seen, heard, and felt, as lessons 
are only well learned by studying the objects themselves. 
“The history of the common house-fly has been studied 
thoroughly but quite recently. The memoirs of the Swedish 
Count DeGeer, published a little over a hundred years ago, 
contain the first notice of this interesting insect, while a 
fuller account was given in an obscure book by Bouche, a 
German entomologist, published in 1834. Both accounts 
are far from thorough. Dr. A. S. Packard published his 
prize essay upon this insect in 1874, this being the first real 
scientific work uponit. About the same time the question 
came up: is our fly identical with the house-fly of Europe? 
Strange to say, when the question arose in mid-winter, all 
our museums were ransacked for specimens for comparison, 
and to the great disgust of entomologists it was discovered 
that not a single fly could be found in any American collec- 
tion of insects. There was a corner in flies—perhaps the 
first time in history! Later material was not lacking, and 
Dr. Packard could not find any difference between house- 
flies from different countries. 
‘How long this fly has been living in this country there 
are no data to show, and it may have sailed on the May- 
flower, or buzzed in the cabin of Captain John Smith’s ves- 
sel, or even performed its measured flight near the ceilings in 
the ancient town of Pemaquid. At all events, the house-fly 
is one of the earliest settlers, and is entitled to the liberty it 
takes every summer with the upper Four Hundred of New 
York. Perhaps it may have been here before America was 
discovered; and when Christopher Columbus wiped his brow 
upon landing on our shores, it may have been ready to 
settle upon his nose. The fly is impudent enough to have 
done so, though history does not throw light upon this 
subject. 
“During the month of August the house-flyis particularly 
abundant, and especially so in the neighborhood of stables. 
