MINOR MUD AND WATER FOLK. 131 



fall brood, however, hatching from the egg Octo- 

 ber 3, as animated whitish commas with black 

 heads. 



Mosquito infants are really bright-appearing 

 persons. A good many people are not aware that 

 there are two forms of these creatures before 

 they have wings. A man with whom I once con- 

 versed, while knowing mosquito " boats " and 

 mosquito " wrigglers," was yet ignorant that there 

 is a middle pupa stage of " tumblers," as the 

 club-shaped creatures are called. The tumblers 

 are said not to eat anything, so one can hardly 

 wonder at the hunger of the winged creatures 

 that come from them. Well do I remember 

 spending a night among the swamps of the Sac- 

 ramento River, when a child, and seeing the 

 enormous swarms of mosquitoes above the trees, 

 humming like a lot of bees. Wise writers say 

 that the lady mosquitoes alone bite, and that the 

 gentlemen content themselves with dwelling in 

 swamps and woods. But four trustworthy people 

 and two veracious horses could testify that there 

 were a large delegation of lady mosquitoes in the 

 Sacramento swamps that night, and that fire and 

 smoke did not prevail against them. 



The Flamen Dialis, priest of Jupiter, was an- 

 ciently not allowed to touch a trailing vine. The 

 poison-oak along this creek seems to be deter- 

 mined to enforce the same rule on everybody as 

 far as these blackberry-vines are concerned, for 



