BIRDS IN THE IH'SI-I 



197 



•SHIPS THAT PASS IN THE NIGHT. 



Wasps Killed Fourteen Ducks. 



Middletown, Connecticut. 

 To the Editor : 



I am sending a tiny insect (or a por- 

 tion— I don't know which) that has 

 caused considerable trouble among my 

 ducks this summer. I have had hatch 

 about sixty-five or seventy ducks, and 

 among the different broods at different 

 times in the season this little insect 

 has killed fourteen. Of course the lit- 

 tle ducks are great "bug catchers," and 

 this insect fastens in the roof of the 

 bill and can only be extracted with 

 tweezers, and soon after the duck dies 

 in a sort of convulsion. Should you 

 pass the stinger of this insect over the 

 hand after taking it from the duck's 

 mouth, it would force itself into the 

 flesh almost immediately and cause a 

 burning, smarting, itching sensation 

 which lasts some time and the unpleas- 

 antness will spread over considerable 



surface. I never had any dealings with 

 this insect until this summer, and I 

 wish I might know whether the speci- 

 men I send is the whole or part of the 

 insect. 



Yours truly, 



Mrs. F. E. Deming. 



Your correspondent has extracted 

 from the roof of the bill of one of her 

 little ducks the stinger and the end of 

 the abdomen of some wasp. The rest 

 of the insect has disappeared. It is 

 most interesting to know that fourteen 

 ducks have been killed by such stings. 

 Of course it is impossible from the 

 stinger alone to know exactly what the 

 insect may have been, but it is un- 

 doubtedly one of the wasps. — L. O. 

 Howard, Chief of Bureau of Entomol- 

 ogy, Washington, D. C. 



O Nature, gracious mother of us all, 

 Within thy bosom myriad secrets lie 

 Which thou surrenderest to the patient eye 

 That seeks and waits. 



— Alargaret J. Preston. 



