318 THE MAUSOLEUM. 
our work late in the autumn, when they disappear. 
Hard wind is the only thing that quells them; 
but it simply drives them into the grass, to 
return on its lulling, if possible, more savagely 
hungry. Quaint old Spenser knew this; he says, 
speaking of gnats :— 
No man nor beast may rest or take repast 
For their sharp sounds and noyous injuries, 
Till the fierce northern wind with blustering blast 
Doth blow them quite away, and in the ocean cast. 
My notebook, as I open it now, isa mausoleum 
of scores of my enemies; there they lay, dry and 
flat; round some of them a stain of blood tells 
how richly they merited their untimely end. 
One thing has always puzzled me in the history 
of these ravenous cannibals—what on earth can 
they get to feed on, when there are no men or 
animals? I brought home specimens, of course ; 
and I am by no means sure I feel any great 
pleasure in finding my foe to be a new species, 
but it is, and named Culex pinguis, because it 
was fatter and rounder than any of its known 
brethren. 
The habits of this new mosquito are, in every 
detail, the same as all the known species. The 
female lays her eggs, which are long and oval in 
shape, in the water; then aided by her hind-legs, 
