MR. PUNCH ENTOMOLOGICAL RECREATIONS.
PECULIAR HABITS OF THE HOP-FLY.
During the winter months, and especially about Christmas, begins to appear the Hop-fly. It has usually a dark green or brown body, with two bright eyes in front (when the lamps are lighted). In damp weather it will be found to give out a musty smell. Its habitat is about mews and livery stables. This fly may be seen in motion about the streets of respectable neighbourhoods in considerable quantities between the hours of nine and ten at night, and later between midnight and the small hours will be found motionless in rows near the pavement, outside houses where the linkmen at the doors, the light in the drawing-room windows, and the muscle of the band, announce the “hop” from which this fly derives its principal support. The Hop-fly will be found in greatest abundance in the metropolis from the winter till the end of the London season. Its pace is irregular, but never exceeds seven miles an hour.
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