90 MOSQUITO REDUCTION 



hand. But she was ready for this, and quickly flew 

 up to the gathered mosquito curtain above. Soon 

 all was quiet, and after a moment's rest she 

 again determined to venture for her food. She 

 moved down gently as before and attacked the man's 

 lip. Here she obtained a few minute drops of blood, 

 but again the sleeper moved, and she was obliged 

 once more to seek her refuge. 



The frugal meal she had obtained had only 

 whetted her appetite for more, and a third time she 

 returned to satisfy her lust. This time she ap- 

 proached the sleeper's ear, but the buzzing her wings 

 made woke him, for he suddenly sat up in bed 

 with an oath, waved his arms about his head, 

 and then set himself to scratching his lip. The wind 

 and disturbance he made with his arms caused the 

 mosquito to fly away to a far corner of the room, and 

 contemplate with quaking thoughts the difficulties of 

 obtaining the necessaries of life. In the meantime 

 the sleeper pulled down his mosquito curtain and 

 tucked it in under the mattress. She tried again to 

 approach him, but he had hidden himself behind an 

 impregnable fortress of muslin. So she stood on the 

 perpendicular part of the curtain and waited as the 

 evening closed in. 



Suddenly a bat flew in through the open window, 

 and swooped about the room, attracted by the small 

 midges that were disporting themselves in a shaft of 

 light thrown by a street lamp outside. The bat did 

 not see her, but its presence terrified her as its wings 

 flapped past the mosquito net. 



