"_When the maggot bites_" (Vol. viii., p. 244.).--A correspondent asks why
a thing done on the spur of the moment is said to be done "when the maggot
bites." It signifies rather doing a thing when the fancy takes one. When a
person acts from no apparent motive in external circumstances, he is said
to have a maggot in his head, to have a bee in his bonnet or, in French,
"Avoir des rats dans la tete;" in Platt-Deutsch, to have a mouse-nest in
his head, the eccentric behaviour being attributed to the influence of the
internal irritation.