e process of chemical solvents.

These last, who are high class scavengers, are entitled to first
mention. They are flies, of many various species. If time permitted,
each of those strenuous ones would deserve a special examination; but
that would weary the patience of both the reader and the observer. The
habits of one will give us a summary notion of the habits of the rest.
We will therefore confine ourselves to the two principal subjects,
namely, the Luciliae, or greenbottles, and the Sarcophagae, or grey
flesh flies.

The Luciliae--flies that glitter--are magnificent flies known to all of
us. Their metallic luster, generally a golden green, rivals that of our
finest beetles, the Rosechafers, Buprestes and leaf beetles. It gives
one a shock of surprise to see so rich a garb adorn those workers in
putrefaction. Three species frequent my pans: Lucilia Caesar, LIN., L.
cadaverina, LIN., and L. cuprea, ROB. The first two, both of whom are
gold-green, are plentiful; the third, who sports a coppery luster, is
rare. All three have red eyes, set in a silver border.

Lucilia Caesar is larger than L. cadaverina and also more forward in her
business. I catch her in labor on the 23rd of April. She has settled
in the spinal canal of a neck of mutton and is laying her eggs on the
marrow. For more than an hour, motionless in the gloomy cavity, she goes
on packing her eggs. I can just see her red eyes and her silvery face.
At last, she comes out. I gather the fruit of her labor, an easy matter,
for it all lies on the marrow, which I extract without touching the
eggs.

A census would seem important. To take it at once is impracticable: the
germs form a compact mass, which would be difficult to count. The best
thing is to rear the family in a jar and to reckon by the pupae buried
in the sand. I find a hundred and fifty-seven. This is evidently but
a minimum; for Lucilia Caesar and the others, as the observations that
follow will tell me, lay in packets at repeated intervals. It is a
magnificent family, promising a fabulous legion to come.

The greenbottles, I was saying, break up their laying into sections. The
following scene affords a proof of this. A Mole, shrunk by a few days'
evaporation, lies spread upon the sand of the pan. At one point, the
edge of the belly is raised and forms a deep arch. Remark that the
Greenbottles, like the rest of the flesh eating flies, do not trust
their eggs to uncovered surfaces, where the heat