It certainly was a very large Gnat: ‘about the size of a chicken,’ Alice thought. Still, she couldn’t feel nervous with it, after they had been talking together so long.

‘ — then you don’t like all insects?’ the Gnat went on, as quietly as if nothing had happened.

‘I like them when they can talk,’ Alice said. ‘None of them ever talk, where I come from.’

‘What sort of insects do you rejoice in, where you come from?’ the Gnat inquired.

‘I don’t rejoice in insects at all,’ Alice explained, ‘because I’m rather afraid of them — at least the large kinds. But I can tell you the names of some of them.’