Gnats and Terns All sorts of surprising things can stimulate
rhapsodies. I have just received an eight:page letter from Algeria, of which seven pages consist of delight in studying mosquitoes. The young research worker finds extravagant beauty in their eggs as seen through the microscope, and thanks to his gusto as well as his skill he has made discoveries that may greatly augment the discovery of a Ross expedition on the malaria- carrying anopheles. One of the very few good results of the war—the worst calamity that ever befell humanity—is the growing success of the war against malaria, which is still rampant in the Far East.. Happily this particular lyric on the mosquito ends, as the insects' season ends, with a note of pleasure in • the discovery of that attractive bird, the pratincole, the watching of many sorts of tern or sea- swallow, and the sudden spreading of a carpet of grape hyacinth, nar- cissi and cyclamen. All seasons have their peculiar charms. I may perhaps quote from a Scottish correspondent, " the snow lies thick on the top of the mountains, and the blue of the sky, the copper of the beeches, the green morass and the brown bracken, and the shiny water are of more than spring beauty."
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