The broad, comparatively short wings
carry a body possessing a muscular system of the highest development,
for the note flight produces indicates the extraordinary rapidity of the
wing vibrations. Some swift-flying insects are said to make about eight
hundred down strokes of the wing per second. This big fair fellow's
machinery may not be equipped for such marvellous momentum, but the
high key that he sounds under certain circumstances indicates rare force
and speed. No library of reference is available. The specific scientific
title of the insect cannot therefore be supplied. Possibly it does not
yet possess one, but it is a true fly of the family ASILIDAE, and being
a veritable monster to merely sportful and persistent if annoying flies
of lesser growth, no doubt it will continue to perform its part even
though without a formal distinction. Its presence is announced by an
ominous, booming hum. It passes on one side with a flight so rapid as to
render it almost invisible. You hear a boom which has something of a
whistle, and see a yellowish glint; the rest is space and silence. In
half a minute the creature returns; and thus he scoops about, booming
and making innocent lightnings in the clear air.
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