THE COMMON HOUSE FLY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2748, 1 March 1910, Page 2

THE COMMON HOUSE FLY.

MYSTERIES OF THE FLY

Mr. Henry Hill, who, for seven or eight years, lias had' flies under close observation* states as follows to a reporter of tlio “Daily Mail” : —“I have given a 'Treat deal of time to tho question of tile lly’s ability to see. My own belief is that the house ily lias no acuteness of vision. 1 have put a spider and a fly togetheigin a glass, and seen the latter jump on to the spider’s back. Again, I have seen a fly proceed to one-eighth of an inch distance from a motionless spider. Tho tact that the lly j in the latter instance, has been perfectly safe suggests that the spider also has no acuteness of vision.” Mr. Hill asserted, with reference to the insects’ homely name of “house “cholera” fly, or• the “typhoid” fly, we should be far jess tolerant of it. He stated that the flies we see in the house at this time of the year are winterhatched insects, and not survivors from the summer warmth. . “I wish,” he added. "I eoukl explain why a fly never walks down, but always up,’ a clean window-pane, and why, on the other hand, it will walk down the slanting glass front of a picture. It also is a mystery to me why a fly rests liead-downwards on a wall. These arc habits of the. house-fly which offer a field for interesting study.”