364 Next to the Ground 



That has, however, little to do with the 

 true snake-doctor's claim to consideration. 

 It is well to increase the number of trout 

 men may eat, but ever so much better to 

 diminish the number of musquitoes which 

 do eat men. Musquitoes lay their eggs in 

 clumps like fairy boats, or loose chain-clusters, 

 upon the surface of stagnant water. The 

 female musquito is the bloodthirsty one. 

 She is bigger and stronger than the male, and 

 altogether the executive end of the family. 

 She lays eggs by the hundred — eggs which 

 hatch and mature so rapidly she may be a 

 great-grandmother many times over in course 

 of a summer. A very little figuring shows 

 how she would overrun and possess the land 

 if there were not checks and balances. Her 

 eggs hatch into that minute but writhing entity 

 the wiggle-tail, the liveliest pest of ponds and 

 standing rain water generally. The wiggle- 

 tail is not without its uses — few things are, 

 in nature's grand economy. It feeds mainly 

 upon things invisible to the naked eye, and 

 thus clears its pool-haunts of things worse 

 even than itself. By and by it becomes a 

 pupa which changes to the perfect musquito. 

 The pupa is light enough to float quite at the 

 surface. When the lava skin bursts to let 

 the new musquito out, there is an instant of 

 ticklish balancing before the creature gets its 



