A YOUNG NATURALIST, 



393 



" How will you behave when you cross the savannahs ?" 



" Just as at present. I would walk without drinking, so 

 as not to excite my thirst," replied the child archly, who 

 had failed to be convinced by our reasoning. 



" Oh, come ! I thought you were too ill for irony. Nev- 

 er mind, I can bear witness that you have behaved like a 

 man. What do your legs say ?" 



" That they would be very willing to rest." 



" You would like to find yourself at Orizava ?" 



" I should rather see a stream, an alligator, and a puma." 



"You are most unreasonable. I should be contented 

 with the stream." 



" Don't you find that the mosquitoes in the Terre- Chaude 

 bite much sharper than those in the Terr e- Temper ee?" 

 asked the boy, addressing l'Encuerado. 



" No, Chanito ; they are all alike, for they belong to the 

 same family, as your papa says." 



" Then they must be more numerous here, for every in- 

 stant one receives a fresh pinch." 



" You must not complain yet, Chanito ; you'll see what it 

 will be when we reach the stream." 



" How will it be then ?" 



" We shall not be able to open our mouths without swal- 

 lowing some of these blood-suckers. But, Chanito, do you 

 know what these mosquitoes are ?" 



"Yes, papa told me yesterday that they were diptera, 

 and relations of the gadflys. Their proboscis is a kind 

 of sheath inclosing six lancets, by the help of which they 

 pierce our skin and suck our blood." 



" But where do these hungry wretches come from ?" 



" From the water, where the insect lays its eggs. You 

 know those little worms which are constantly moving up 

 and down in pools ; they are the larvae of the mosquito." 



"The mosquito, that terrible scourge of the Terre- Tem* 



17* 



