Mason. — External Parasites found upon lluia. 359 



The food of the huia largely consists of insects occurring among ground- 

 herbage, more particularly a species of Coleoptera, the larva of which burrows 

 in dead timber ; and in searching for this food the bird is again liable to 

 become infested by at least one of the species of licks under discussion, for 

 Mr. C. W. Howard records {Ann. Transvaal Museum, vol. 1, 1908, p. 104) how 

 unfed adults of Hyalomma aegyptium " may be frequently found moving 

 about the ground or hidden under bark of trees," and there is no reason 

 to doubt that a similar habit may also have been acquired by this species 

 in New Zealand. Although we are without direct evidence, it is probable 

 that Haemaphysalis leachi may be found in similar surroundings. From a 

 date beginning about 1880 the huia, at all times an uncommon bird, seemed 

 rapidly to decrease in numbers. This decrease and ultimate disappearance 

 have given rise to much speculation, and it is possible that the persecution 

 to which it has been subject by Maori hunters, the mercenary collector, 

 and introduced animals cannot alone be called upon to account for its 

 regrettable extinction. The question is raised as to whether we have not 

 to recognize yet another of those disastrous factors by which the balance 

 of nature has in this particular instance been disturbed through the intro- 

 duction of these parasites into New Zealand, where they were previously 

 unknown. 



The specimen from which I collected the ticks under discussion had the 

 wattles appreciably smaller and more shrunken than in any other example 

 of the species I have at various times examined. Owing, however, to a 

 distinct reduction in the length of the bill, and sundry white edgings to 

 the under tail-coverts, I had looked upon this particular specimen as an 

 immature bird Professor E. Ehlers has, however, gone to some length 

 (Abh. Ges. Gutting., Bd. xxxix, pp. 35-43, 1894) in an endeavour to show 

 that the length of the bill has no bearing upon the age of the individual. 



We possess abundant evidence of the destruction caused by members 

 of the Ixodidae in spreading disease and death among the animals they 

 attack. A species of Argas has been know to infest fowls in South Africa, 

 and to occasion so much loss of blood that the fowls die in great numbers. 

 It has also been a subject for conjecture if the endemic New Zealand quail 

 really owes its extinction altogether to the prevalence of bush and grass fires, 

 and to the persecution of sportsmen and introduced carnivorous animals. 



The two species of tick to which I have here directed attention are 

 widely distributed throughout Africa, and Hyalomma aegyptium is also 

 recorded from southern Europe, and ranges through Asia Minor to Persia 

 and adjoining countries as far as China. Their hosts include almost all 

 domestic and wild animals, numerous birds, and a tortoise. Haema- 

 physalis leachi transmits the distemper or malignant jaundice of dogs. 



We have long known that the huia has been subject to attack from an 

 endemic parasite belonging to the Mallophaga, but I am not aware if the 

 identity of the species has ever been established, or if its specific characters 

 are known. Every skin of Neomorpha that I have examined reveals the 

 presence of the louse, by the great number of egg-cases, or nits, attached 

 to the bases of the feathers, particularly in the orbital region ; I have counted 

 as many as ten of these nits attached to a single very small feather. The 

 perfect insect I have never seen. 



