MAY. 99 



Yet in summer they may be seen flying to and fro, through 

 these holes, many hundreds of times in a day. 



C. — Why are the farmers so accommodating to this bird ? 



F. — All the species of swallows are universal favourites ; 

 and they well deserve to be cherished around our dwellings, 

 on account of the incessant and successful warfare which they 

 carry on against those insect pests, the musquitoes, sandflies 

 and other similar races. 



C. — I have observed the musquito or gnat already abroad ; 

 but I have not yet been so unfortunate as to know by expe- 

 rience the effect of their bites. 



F. — You will not live long in that state of happy igno- 

 rance : before this month is ended, we shall have them 

 swarming around us, and our bodies will be continually co- 

 vered with large white tumours, attended with intolerable 

 itching, and followed by much inflammation and pain. It 

 is more particularly by night that they make their insidious 

 attacks ; they swarm in our bed-chdmbers, and it is a very 

 common thing to see in the morning many of them lazily 

 pitched about the walls, and ceiling, their abdomens distended, 

 and almost bursting, with the blood which they have ex- 

 tracted from our veins at their leisure. It is almost impos- 

 sible to do anything in the fields after sunset, as one hand is 

 perpetually in requisition to drive them from our faces, but 

 they return most pertinaciously to the attack, and, notwith- 

 standing all our efforts, manage to cover our faces, necks, 

 heads, hands, and legs, with their bites. Their ringing hum, 

 which always announces their approach, is listened to with 

 a feverish anxiety, and as it approaches the ear, is heard with 

 a dread and horror that is almost laughable when we consi- 

 der the size of the enemy. 



C. — Is there more than one species that is so annoying ? 



F. — There are two species at least, if not more, of the 

 true musquito (Culex); and besides them there is the Black 



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