Mosquitoes and Parasite Problems. 147 
Dendrocolaptine bird—Anumbius acuticaudatus— 
much infested by an Ornithomyia, a pretty, pale 
insect, half the size of a house-fly, and elegantly 
striped with green. It is a very large parasite for 
so small a bird, yet so cunning and alert is it, and 

Firewood-gatherer and Bird-fly, 
so swiftly is it able to swim through the plumage, 
that the bird is unable to rid itself of so un- 
desirable a companion. The bird lives with its 
mate all the year round, much of the time with its 
grown-up young, in its nest—a large structure, in 
