Bugs (Hemiptera) 273 



other creatures they become degraded when they 

 become dead-beats and one consequence is the 

 parasites lose their power of flight and lose their 

 wings altogether, hence those bugs which infest 

 the beds in unclean houses, and infest the bodies 

 of unclean people, very fortunately for clean 

 people have no wings. 



Among the bugs that live in the water also are 

 some without wings and some with half-wings, and 

 others with well -developed wings that are good 

 fliers. 



We will take the lowest and most degraded of 

 bugs first, in order to get over the disagreeable 

 part as quickly as possible. I suppose it is needless 

 for me to say that I did not make the sketches 

 (Figs. 253-256) from live specimens, for I never 

 made a personal study of these disagreeable in- 

 sects, but they belong with bugs and must find a 

 place here, besides which I am talking to boys, and 

 every boy is liable some time in his life to see one 

 or more live specimens. 



Dm'ing the war of the States, the Union and 

 Confederate armies were infested with these things 

 whicli tliey called " gray-backs "; from the general 

 and his staff down to the private in the ranks, 



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