The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-05-09

inmates in two flattened lips which pos
sess considerable power of suction.
Through this tube the fly obtains it's
food. When eating dry substance.
like sugar, 1t elects upon 1t tiny drops
of moisture, which causes 1t to melt,
and fit it for being sucked up. This ac-
tion can be verified readily, and with
out resort to the microscope, by feed
ing a fly with some dark-colOred jelly
and then placing him upon a lump of
sugar, which will soon become discol-
ored in spots. a bit of newly-washed,
white linen may serve for the expert
ment perhaps, even better than the
sugar. The fly, which has certain epi-
curean tastes. seems to agree with
Beau. Brummel in thinking-"There is
nothing in nature equal to the perfume
of clean linen. also to believe that If
it were well moistened. this same per-
MOST UNBIDDEN OF GUESTS.
1t would be useless to deny that this,
! our enemy. Is the most tiresome and
provoking of unbidden guests; that his
Offenses are legion. He deflles our
| choicest food, confections and bever-
ages, not only by tasting them with his
| lips but by treading upon them with
| his feet which may have been any
| ciously dances upon the bald head of
the most august and highly honored
guest at our dinner table, or on that
| of the most cherished member of the
| household. He buzzes in the ear of the
| orator at the acme of his perOratiOn,
or sharply stings the neck of the prinia
donna in the midst of her most elabOr
ate trill. He alights upon the nose of
| the surgeon, disturbing brain and hand
,rha b,p ic hanuipu
| their steadiness. He is guilty of every
| mischief, disgust and diablerie to be
| found In the calendar-and he gives us
| in return-what? First, continual
and free acrobatic exhibition that is un-
surpassed anywhere; and secondly, he
Is supposed to be a steady consumer
of microbes, those invisible horrors that
I'll the air with danger to man; a ben
eft so inestimable that it should serve
to dwarf and render pardonable all his
puny teasings. a favorite field for the
| display of
HIS AGILITY
is the window where he amuses himself
by the hour in alternately walking over
the panes, and buZZing up and down
them. How does he do it? How manage
to cling to that smooth and slippery
surface: or still more marvellous, to
walk fairly upside down upon the CELL
| ing? Does any one surely know? Men
Of science have made a study of it
/ have spent weary days and years in
trying to solve the problem. Each has
had his theory. There have been plaus-
ible conjectures-- discoveries made
only to be afterwards proved mistaken.
| The latest, and 1t is just now very well
received, is that the hairs which thick
| ly cover the membraneous discs Of the
| fly's foot. themselves terminate in mi
| mute discs. These exert q power of
suction, which, by reason of their num-
| Der, becomes considerable enough to
support the weight of the fly; while,
at the moment the suction is eXerted, a
fluid eXudes from the hair discs which
adds to their adhesive power. This
may prove to be the true explanation
| of q phenomenon that has baflled clever
men.
AT the
APPROACH OF COLD
| the swarms of flies rapidly diminish in
| number. \ curious disease appears to
be borne to them upon the wings of
the chilling autumnal winds. Instinct
| lively they crowd within the shelter of
our warmest rooms; but even this fails
to save their lives. and they die cling
| ing to walls, window panes and draper
| les in the attitudes of life. but with
bloated abdomens ringed with white
| and distended to deformity. Others,
free from this disease but enfeebled and
grown stiff by reason of the cold, are
destroyed and eaten in great numbers
by other insects. and by birds.
There are still, however, Il good many
left to hibernate in the warm corners
of our homes, and to appear again
after their winter sleep i'm the first
sunny days of early spring. They are
somewhat rusty and very clumsy, it Is
true, at first. but soon by dint of brush
ing and pluming themselves, they ac-
| Quire once more an air of YOUTH and.
following in its train, seems to come to
them a great amount of bustling en-
ergy, which they display by buZZing
here and there in search of food or In
greedily sucking away at such stray
morses as they may be fortunate
enough to come upon.
MISSION OF MADAM FLY.
But 1t Is not alone that she may eat,
! drink and be merry that the life of
Madam Fly has been preserved through
all the dreary days of cold. A great
responsibility has been given her; she
has q duty to perform upon which de-
pends the future of her race. and she
will not fail Faithful to her earliest
associations, she seeks for some mass of
! tilth-a pile of decaying, vegetable mat
ter, or still better dung heap suits her
taste on needs-and here she proceeds
to deposit her eggs While choosing
| for them locality so repulsive. she
places her seventy, eighty or ninety
eggs with a precision and orderly array
that Is truly beautiful-then leaves
them to the heat Of the sun and the
kindly care Of Mother Nature. Time
! shows her trust to have been not mis-
placed; and the resulting. supply proves