56 MORE MINOR HORRORS 



ova. In other words, the insects need blood for 

 the propagation of their species. 



Undoubtedly, if mosquitos ever talk, they 

 would talk like Mr. Waterbrook, Mrs. Henry 

 Spiker — ^Hamlet's aunt — and the ' simpering 

 fellow with weak legs ' talked when David 

 Copperfield dined with the first-named at Ely 

 Place, Holborn. The burden of their song 

 was : ' Give us blood.' 



But a word of caution must be given here. 

 Most of these deductions are based upon 

 mosquitos in captivity ; whether the same 

 be true of them in natural conditions is not 

 quite certain. If it be so it is difficult to 

 see how these countless millions of gnats 

 and mosquitos which dwell in the barren 

 regions around the polar circle ever keep 

 going. 



It very frequently happens in the Animal 

 Kingdom that females are much more numerous, 

 as well as much larger, than the males. ^ As 

 Kipling tells us : ' The female of the species 

 is more deadly than the male,' but Professor 

 Nuttall and I did not notice that this 

 was the case with Anopheles. 



There is some evidence that the male hatches 

 out earlier than the female, and that in Southern 



* This is a fact I have always tried to conceal from Mrs, 

 Pankhurst ; but, sooner or later, she is bound to find it out. 



