y be extracted.

If, while sitting on the porch on a warm summer evening, mosquitoes
begin to annoy, let one of them at least serve to show his method of
procedure before he is destroyed. Allow the creature to alight upon
the back of your hand and slowly raise the arm until the eye looking
at near range can see the head of the mosquito, which, by the way, is
sure to be a female. Males in this species are entirely harmless. They
never eat after they have grown up; that is, after they are truly
mosquitoes. But the female is very assiduous. Alternately raising and
lowering her lancets from either side, she pierces, then saws, her way
down through the flesh until she has buried her instruments in her
victim and her head rests against her prey. Now a pumping motion of
the abdomen will be apparent, and this continues its accordion-like
action until it becomes more and more distended. The insect only gives
up its task when the entire abdomen is swollen into a great red ball
of blood. The mosquito will now slowly withdraw its instruments and
retire from the scene, if permitted to do so. If there is any fear of
annoyance from the bite, a drop of ammonia immediately applied will
counteract any irritation which would have been produced by the saliva
of the mosquito. The insect is not intentionally vicious in this
procedure. It is simply gathering its own natural food, though this
does not make it less annoying to us since we are its victims. The
swelling produced after the bite is the result of the action of the
saliva the mosquito injected into the wound. The opening through the
tongue is so small that blood would readily clot inside the tube and
prevent its further usefulness, did not the mosquito inject the
secretion of its salivary glands into the wound. This acts upon the
blood in such a way as to prevent its coagulation.

Anyone who thinks carefully can add numberless specializations for
food getting. For instance, primitive mammals have little pointed
teeth which fit them for feeding on insects. In each of the great
order of mammals a special development of these teeth has occurred.
Among the rodents or gnawing animals the front teeth have become long
and chisel-shaped for nibbling. The horse has formed them for nipping,
and his hind teeth for grinding. In the dog the teeth near the front
have become long for tearing his flesh food, while his hind teeth,
working with the motion of scissors, cut it into pieces.

A second