BATS AS MOSQUITO DESTEOYEES 179 



favorable work of the spoon-bill duck, which he thought is particularly adapted 

 to the destruction of mosquito larvge resting at the surface of the water. Mr. 

 McAfee, of the Biological Survey, has recently found mosquitoes in the gizzard 

 of the Mallard {Anas platyrhynchos) . 



Doctor Smith has recorded the fact that some of the shore birds eat mosquito 

 larvsB in considerable numbers. He examined the stomachs of a ring-necked 

 plover (^gialitis semipalmata) , of a least sandpiper {Pisohia minutilla), 

 and of a semipalmated sandpiper {Ereunetes pusiUus), and all of these had 

 eaten the larva of Aedcs sollicitans in some numbers, the ring-necked plover 

 having eaten the most. He states, and this has also been our experience, that 

 there was no especial difficulty in identifying the larvae from the remains, the 

 head and breathing-tube are so strongly chitinous that they are not digested. 



W. L. McAfee, in a recent circular of the Biological Survey, sums up our 

 knowledge of the oflSce of shorebirds in the control of mosquitoes as follows : 



" Shorebirds perform an important service by their inroads upon mosquitoes, 

 some of which play so conspicuous a part in the dissemination of diseases. Thus, 

 nine species are known to feed upon mosquitoes, and hundreds of the larvae or 

 ' wigglers ' were found in several stomachs. Fifty-three per cent of the food of 

 28 northern phalaropes from one locality consisted of mosquito larvae. The in- 

 sects eaten include the salt-marsh mosquito (Aedes sollicitans) , for the suppres- 

 sion of which the State of New Jersey has gone to great expense. The nine 

 species of shorebirds known to eat mosquitoes are : 

 " ISTorthem phalarope (Lohipes loiatus) . 



Wilson phalarope (Steganopns tricolor) . 



Stilt sandpiper (Micropalama Mmantopus) . 



Pectoral sandpiper (Pisohia rnaculata). 



Baird sandpiper (Ptso&ta toir^t). '• 



Least sandpiper (Pisohia minutilla) . 



Semipalmated sandpiper (Ereunetes pusillus). 



Killdeer (Oxyechus vociferus) . 



Semipalmated plover (Aegialitis semipalmata) ." 



BATS. 



Bats are important mosquito-destroying animals. Flying at dusk and after 

 dark, and capturing all flying insects upon the wing, they devour large numbers 

 of adult mosquitoes in times of mosquito prevalence. Mr. C. Few Seiss, at a 

 meeting of the Feldman Collecting Social, in Philadelphia, June 19, 1901, 

 stated that he had dissected a specimen of the common brown bat (Eptesicus 

 fuscus), and had found its stomach full of mosquitoes. The suggestion has been 

 made by Mr. A. C. Weeks, of Brooklyn, that an attempt be made to breed bats 

 artificially on account of their importance as mosquito destroyers, but until 

 recently no one seems to have taken the matter up. 



Greatly impressed with the value of bats as mosquito destroyers. Dr. Chas. A. 

 R. Campbell, formerly city bacteriologist of San Antonio, Texas, has erected a 

 novel bat breeding-house six miles south of that city. His idea is that the bats 

 will rapidly become sufficiently numerous, with this admirably adapted nesting 

 place, to rid the neighborhood of night-flying mosquitoes, and at the same time 

 the entire expense will be more than paid by having the structure built in such a 

 manner that the bat-guano can be readily collected and taken away. 

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