A BAND OF HUNTERS 
141 
“ You wouldn’t term the stink bug a friend, 
would you? ” Max interrupted quickly. 
“ Well,” said Tommy slowly, “ we seldom ac¬ 
knowledge it as one, and yet when it prowls 
around over our berries, it is after insects that eat 
the fruit. Ordinarily, too, as I was going on to 
say, the assassin bug eats aphids, harmful cater¬ 
pillars and such like. But he never stops for 
class or size when his blood is up; they say he will 
tackle any animal and have his toll in blood, if no 
more. One species has a liking for human blood, 
and following the general tactics of the clan it 
prefers to steal in and take its victim off guard. 
Somehow it has learned that folks get into beds 
to sleep; so it does not hesitate to hide under the 
covers and wait for the sleepers. In some places 
they are real pests, and have earned the name of 
giant bedbugs. Science terms them the blood¬ 
sucking cone-nose. It is said that these creatures 
are nearly always to be found in the nests of field- 
mice. 
“Another member of the clan has a special ap¬ 
petite for the true bedbugs. It is said that a col¬ 
ony of them turned loose in an infested house will 
clean out the bedbugs root and branch. Bedbug 
killer it is called. But it also feeds eagerly on 
flies and cockroaches. The young of this tribe is 
an adept at camouflaging. It creeps about in 
dusty places and painstakingly covers its brown 
