THE MOSQUITO, 27 



in the balance against the mosquito, is found wanting. 



Another minor sub-difficulty is that mosquitos are always 

 most venomous where they can scarcely ever have a chance 

 of biting in pestilential swamps and jungles inhabited 

 by such impenetrable pachyderms as the wild elephant and 

 the rhinoceros Among rank weeds in deserted Bombay 

 gardens, too, there is a large, speckled, unmusical mosquito, 

 raging and importunate and thirsty, which will give a new 

 idea in pain to any one that visits its haunts. 



To come to the description and history of the animal, 

 the mosquito is not the same as the buffalo, though it is 

 said that a young lady who had just landed in India fled 

 from a herd of those peaceful domestic antediluvians and 

 asked if they were not the dreadful mosquitos of which she 

 had heard such tales. The mosquito is only a little insect 

 with two wings and six legs. The wings are for flying with, 

 and four of the legs for walking with. The two long hind 

 legs are connected with the suction apparatus and are of 

 the nature of pump-handles. Of course, the anatomist, pry- 

 ing with his microscope, will deny this ; but the microscope 

 comes from micros, small, and scopein, to see, and no one 

 who relies on it can grasp a large idea. Anybody may 

 satisfy himself by watching a mosquito at work and noting 



32 



