146 THE WORLD OF LIFE CHAP. 



"In reply to your recent favour I beg to say, that, in my 

 forthcoming book on a canoe journey of 2000 miles which I made 

 to the Arctic regions in 1907, I am setting forth at great length the 

 numbers, virulence, and distribution of the mosquitoes, together 

 with observations on those creatures which are immune from their 

 attacks. ... I should say that the night-hawk (Chordeiles 

 virginianus) is the most active enemy of this insect, feeding on it 

 during the whole season. On one occasion I took over 100 

 mosquitoes from the throat of one of these night-hawks, that was 

 carrying them home to feed its young. Many similar observations 

 have been recorded. Next in importance would come the broad- 

 billed flycatchers of the American group Tyrannidae, and the more 

 abundant though smaller species of the Mniotiltidae. All of these 

 I have seen feeding on the adult mosquitoes. Doubtless all of our 

 thrushes do the same, although I do not recall any positive 

 records. We are very safe, I take it, in cataloguing all of our small 

 birds as enemies of the mosquitoes in the adult form. The various 

 small wading birds, and the small ducks and grebes, are believed 

 to prey on the larval mosquitoes ; but doubtless it is the insects and 

 small fish that are to be credited with the principal destruction in 

 this stage." 



From his personal observations Mr. Dresser says : 



" I believe that most of the waders feed their young on them 

 (mosquitoes) in the high north. In north Finland and Lapland 

 I found the small birds (warblers, swallows, etc.) feeding on 

 mosquitoes, and the snow bunting fed its young on them." 



There is, therefore, a consensus of evidence as to the pre- 

 eminent attraction afforded by these insects to almost all 

 birds which breed in the Arctic regions. 



The beautiful view on the opposite page gives us an idea 

 of the appearance of the upland tundra along the shores of 

 the Arctic Ocean. Here the southern slopes of the low hills 

 are the first to be free from snow, and afford an abundant 

 supply of last year's berries to the earliest migrants, as well 

 as a variety of animal food for aquatic birds on the 

 adjacent sea-shores in favourable situations. 



The combined physical and emotional enjoyment in this 

 birds' paradise, during the whole of the Arctic summer, for 

 so large a number of species of birds and in such enormous 

 multitudes, is probably unequalled in any other part of the 

 world ; and we have the satisfaction of knowing that it is 

 perhaps the only example of Nature's short-lived but annual 



