8 4 



LIVING CREATURES. 



To most people the bugle of the mosquito is as un- 

 welcome as her lancet-sting. It gives a musical sound, 

 but there are fidgety thoughts of surgery and blood 

 mingled with the music. Possibly this is the very rea- 

 son why the mosquito pipes her tune to irritate the 

 nerves of her poor victim, who 

 is trying to coax sleep. When 

 the victim is excited, the blood 

 flows more freely, and the veins 



Mosquito and Imago Magnified. 



are full. Very appropriate -is it, therefore, for this 

 visitor to fill a vein by her noise, before she taps it 

 with her beak. 



Like the house fly, our night-warbler has the char- 

 acteristics of the true insect the head, the thorax, 

 and the abdomen ; the six legs and two wings. In 

 some respects she is different from the fly, and she is 



