166 GAD- OR BREEZE-FLIES. 
walks through the machine, and just as it passes the dome 
and enters the darkened part a set of brushes sweep off the 
flies, which naturally rise into the lighted dome, and the 
steer passes out at the other side free from flies. The flies 
are retained in the dome trap. The inventor has experi- 
mented with his machine, and finds that animals soon learn 
the value of it and know enough to walk through the same 
when the flies begin to bite. The device is said to be pat- 
ented, but a plan involving the same principle has been in use 
among farmers for the destruction of horn-flies for a year or 
two past. 
GAD-FLIES. BREEZE-FLIES. 
( Tabanide). 
There is quite a large family of flies the members of 
which have gained for themselves a very bad reputation. 
They are usually called Gad- cr Breeze-flies. Such flies are 
found everywhere, and each climate has its own species, but 
all possess the same blood-thirsty character and attack 
warm-blooded animals, be they lions in the torrid zone or 
reindeers in Lapland,and none escape their attacks, be they do- 
mesticated oxen and horses or wild and swift-footed moose 
and deer. The family is distinguished by a broad and 
slightly flattened body, by a large head depressed from front 
to rear, by very large eyes, which are contiguous in the 
males, and which are frequently beautifully colored, by a 
thick and compact thorax, with a large and elevated 
scutellum, and by legs whose tarsi are furnished with three 
cushions. The last joint of the feelers is annulated but has 
no stylet; the exerted proboscis of the female encloses six 
lancet-like instruments, while that of the male possesses but 
four; it ends in two fleshy and lip-like lobes and is covered 
on the sides by the large two-jointed maxillary palpi. The 
wings, which extend horizontally, are propelled by powerful 
muscles and contain a larger number of veins than is usual 
in flies. The flight of these flies is very rapid and accompanied 
by a buzzing sound which greatly alarms animals hearing it. 
Only the females of Gad- or Breeze-Flies attack animals; 
the males live on the sap of flowers. These insects are most 
