40 The Book of 13ugs. 



and of a dusty gray-brown color. She cuts through the 

 skin with her saws, and, oiling up with a tiny droplet of 

 yellow poison that seems to dilute the blood to her liking, 

 starts the pumps. Then she begins to swell into a pink, 

 berry-like being, and she has been known to linger at the 

 delicious draught so long that she pops open. A happy 

 death ! But, as a rule, she knows her limit, and when she 

 feels that if she takes any more she will not be able to 

 navigate, she says, " No more for me," and flies away- 

 not far, for she has a load, and the sharpened pitch of her 

 humming wings tells how hard it is for her to go. Follow 

 up her flight, and you will see that she stops to rest every 

 few feet. How the others must grit their saws when she 

 tells them about it ! They must make a regular Dewey of 

 the one that gets away alive after such a feast. Perhaps it 

 is the desire for glory that impels them to deeds of 

 blood. 



This is a great country, with a wealth of natural re- 

 sources, and we take a place second to none in the 

 abundance and variety of our mosquito-supply. Some 

 thirty varieties of the creature have been more or less 

 studied. It is estimated that not half of the kinds in 

 the United States have been observed or named. The 

 naturalist is usua'ly able to keep his temper, but his 

 mental attitude toward the Cnlicidcc may be seen even 

 through the Latin when he names them, damnosus, ex- 

 crucians, proi'ocans, implacabilis, stimulans, c.rciUius, iiu- 

 patiens, punctor, uwlestus, pungens, and the like. Culex 

 pungens is probably the commonest about the middle part 

 of the country, although Anopheles pMnctipennis and 

 quadrimaculata possess a more feverish interest for us, as 

 I shall show later. In the northern parts C. consobrinus 

 has rather the call. It is a hardy annual, and has been 

 known to bite freely in a snowstorm. In Minnesota it 



