5 8 BIRD-HUNTING 



condition for work during the day. In the southern 

 countries of Europe mosquitoes as a rule only 

 trouble one at night, and one can generally depend 

 upon being unmolested during the day. There are 

 exceptions, however. On the Danube Delta, for 

 example, the mosquitoes are always hungry, and 

 give one no peace by day or night. A green gauze 

 bag, big enough to go over the hat and long enough 

 to tuck under the coat collar, is a great defence for 

 the face ; and this, with gloves for the hands, will 

 give sufficient protection. 



In these Spanish marismas you need no pre- 

 cautions against mosquitoes until April ; they then 

 begin to be troublesome. During May the interior 

 of a choza, or even the airy rooms of the ancient 

 shooting-boxes of the old Spanish nobility, are 

 veritable infernos, and without the protection of 

 mosquito-curtains a stranger would be almost eaten 

 alive. During the later summer months they must 

 equal the winged hordes of the Dobrudscha region, 

 where, to live at all, the people are obliged to have 

 bonfires of dried reeds in the streets, which emit 

 stifling volumes of smoke, and in the towns it is 

 almost impossible to see the light from the feeble 

 street-lamps for the hosts of mosquitoes that circle 

 around them. 



One hears about the campaign against mosquitoes 

 in tropical countries in the attempt to fight the 



