. Ontario Sessional Papers, 1874, t involuntarily onthe slightest touch of any body whatever. Tlie fly does not deposit her eggs at random on the horses body, but selects thoseparts which are most likely to be nibbled by the horse. The inside of the knee is fre-quently chosen, but all naturalists must have remarked how commonly the eggs of thehot are deposited on that part of a horses shoulder which he can never reach with hismouth, and thus to a casual observer it would seem they must perish and fail in the objectfor which their parent designed them. Now there is a provision of nature
. Ontario Sessional Papers, 1874, t involuntarily onthe slightest touch of any body whatever. Tlie fly does not deposit her eggs at random on the horses body, but selects thoseparts which are most likely to be nibbled by the horse. The inside of the knee is fre-quently chosen, but all naturalists must have remarked how commonly the eggs of thehot are deposited on that part of a horses shoulder which he can never reach with hismouth, and thus to a casual observer it would seem they must perish and fail in the objectfor which their parent designed them. Now there is a provision of nature which exactlycounteracts this difficulty. When horses are together in a pasture and one of them feelsan irritation on any part of the neck or shoulder which he cannot reach with his mouth,he will nibVle another horse in the corresponding part of his neck and shouldei, and thehorse so nibbled will immediately perform the kind oflice required, and begin nibblingaway in the part indicated. 323 37 Victoria. Sessional Papers (No. 1.) A. 1873. equi adlierinj, to it. The eggs of the horse CEstrus, wliich are white and of conical form, adhere to the iflllllKftw horses hair as shewn in fig. 27. They are fur-nished with an opercukimor lid which at the time ofhatching, about twentydays after they are depos- Fig. 27. E^s of the Horse Breeze Fly deposited on the hair of a horse. itcd Opens tO allow of the exit of the young larva. It was at first supposed that the horse licks off the eggs thusdeposited, and that they are by this means conveyed into the stomach, but Mr. BraceyClark says, I do not find this to be the case, or at least only by accident, for when theyhave remained on the hair four or five days they become ripe, after which time the slight-est application of warmth and moisture is sufficient to bring forth in an instant the latentlarva. At this time, if the tongue of the hurse touches the egg its operculum or lid isthrown open, and a small active worm is produced, which readily
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