PROC. ENT. SOC. WASH., VOL. 24, NO. 7-8, OCT. -NOV., 1922 181 



Prophecy was ever a dangerous calling, and Bryant has suf- 

 fered the prophet's usual cruel fate in the following: 



"The army worm and the Hessian fly 

 And the dreaded canker-worm shall die, 

 And the thrip and the slug and the fruit-moth seek 

 In vain to escape that busy beak, 

 And fairer harvests shall crown the year, 

 For the Old-Word sparrow at last is here." 



If the poet could have lived to observe the results of this 

 experiment, he might have been moved to add a postscript to 

 this verse, not, of course, in the diction of George Ade, but some- 

 what as follows: 



Alas for the sparrow's vaunted "pep"; 

 He has fallen down and lost his "rep"; 

 And the army-worm and the Hessian fly 

 Ne'er cease to gnaw as he flutters by; 

 And tho' fair harvests garnered be 

 This is not due to such as he; 

 But science with her helping hand 

 Has put to flight this robber band. 



References to the "mosquito" under that name do not seem 

 to occur until James Montgomery, during the second decade of 

 the 19th century: 



" These giant fowlers snapt them, like musketoes 

 By swallows hunted through the summer sky. " 



The Pelican Island. 



Under the term "gnat," however, there are many references 

 running back to Chaucer and Spenser. The following passage, 

 which is of interest as showing the progress of biological science, 

 is from Matthew Prior, written during the second decade of the 

 18th century, while Linneaeus was still but a boy: 



"Fix they corporeal and internal eye 

 On the young gnat or new-engendered fly. 



****** 



Laying their eggs, they evidently prove 

 The genial power, and full effect of love. 

 Each then has organs to digest his food, 

 One to beget and one to receive the brood; 

 Has limbs and sinews, blood and heart, and brain, 

 Life and her proper functions to sustain; 

 Though the whole fabric smaller than a grain." 



References to the mosquito's song are many and amusing, much 

 more so, in fact, than the song itself! 



