prefers "cluret." It is a familiar creature, seems to regard the human
family as its Blood relations, and is always ready to sucker them.

Being a bird of Nocturnal Habits, it is particularly attracted to human
beings in their Night-shirts. The swallow preys upon it, but it
generally eludes the Bat. Although it cannot be called Noctilucous, like
the lightning bug, it has no objection to alight in the darkness, and
you often knock till you cuss in your vain attempts to prevent its
taking a Shine to you.

The mosquito differs in most respects from all the larger varieties of
the winged tribes, and upon the whole takes after man more than any
other living thing. Nevertheless, it certainly bears a noticeable
resemblance to some of the feathered race. Like the Nightingale, it
"sings darkling," and like the woodpecker, is much addicted to tapping
the bark of Limbs and Trunks for the purpose of obtaining grub. It may
be mentioned as an amiable idiosyncracy of the mosquito, that it is fond
of babies. If there is a child in the house, it is sure to spot the
playful innocent; and by means of an ingenious contrivance combining the
principles of the gimlet and the air-pump, it soon relieves the little
human bud of its superfluous juices. It is, in fact, a born surgeon, a
Sangrado of the Air, and rivals that celebrated Spanish Leech in its
fondness for phlebotomy. Some infidels, who do not subscribe to the
doctrine that nothing was made in vain, consider it an unmitigated
nuisance, but the devout and thoughtful Christian recognizes it as
Nature's preventive of plethora, and as it alternately breathes a Vein
and a song, it may be said (though we never heard the remark,) to
combine the _utile_ with the _dulce_.

All the members of the genus are slender and graceful in their shape and