Parasites, Diseases and Enemies. 283 



fish is the soft larva of the May-fly, also called shad-fly, 

 eel-fly, and by other names; it is one of the ephemera 

 which only lives for a day or two in the perfect, or 

 imago, state, but passes several years in the larval state 

 in the water. 



MAMMALS. 



Years ago I met in executive session, all alone, and 

 passed a law that I should not be allowed to take the 



MALE HELGRAMITE FLY. 



life of any living thing unless it was needed by me, or 

 because it worked injury to my interests. Those are 

 the only circumstances under which a man should kill 

 anything. The law was flexible enough to allow of 

 shooting a few game birds for my own table and for 

 taking fish also. A pair of ospreys, sometimes called 

 "fish-hawks," nested above my ponds every year, and 

 often sailed over them with longing eyes, but my orders 

 were not to harm them; they went to the salt water a 

 few hundred yards below, and it was worth the price 

 of admission to see them plunge from a height of a 

 hundred feet and get a fish, One young one, and only 



