34 



UTILITARIAN ZOOLOGY 



enormity to conscious or unconscious deception of the magistrates 

 by the native officials. Decidedly, however, the figures are not so- 

 much overrated as is frequently believed. In India, as well as in 

 Australia, in the course of a year about one person in 6000 falls 

 a victim to snake-bite." 



PERSONAL ENEMIES AMONG FISHES (PISCES). Some of the 

 larger Sharks injure or devour bodily a good many human beings 

 every year. The most notable is the Rondeletian Shark (Car- 

 charodon Rondeletii\ which ranges through the warmer parts of 

 the ocean, and may attain the length of 40 feet. 



Those fishes also which 

 possess poisonous spines 

 (see vol. ii, p. 355) may 

 cause serious injury, while 

 some species are poisonous 

 as food, such, e.g., as 

 Globe- Fishes (Diodon and 

 Tetrodon ) and Coffer - 

 Fishes (O sir acton). 



PERSONAL ENEMIES 

 AMONG MOLLUSCS (MoL- 

 LUSCA). Some of the 

 giant Squids, and larger 

 creatures of the Octopus 

 kind, are certainly capable 

 of injuring or destroying 

 human beings. How far they do so, or have done so, it is im- 

 possible to say. And a few Sea -Snails, such as Cone -Shells 

 (see vol. ii, p. 357), give poisonous bites. 



PERSONAL ENEMIES AMONG INSECTS (!NSECTA). It is quite 

 impossible here to pass in review the host of insects which bite or 

 sting, and many of which make up by numbers what they lack in 

 size. Bees, Wasps, Ants, Gnats (fig. 1238), Mosquitoes, Midges, 

 Sand- Flies, Fleas, Bugs, and Lice are all more or less notable in 

 their way, or perhaps notorious would be a better word. And 

 many insects which do not bite or sting may nevertheless be a 

 serious nuisance, e.g. House- Flies and Flesh- Flies. 



But a fresh and unwelcome interest attaches to insects now 

 that it is known that some of them are the means of conveying 

 the germs of serious disease into the human body. The recent 



Fig. 1238. A Gnat (Culex], enlarged 



