552 



NEMATODE PARASITES OF THE DOMESTIC PIGEON [CULUMBA 

 LIVIA DOMESTICA) IN AUSTRALIA. 



By Vera Irwin-Smith, B.Sc, F.L.S., Linnean Maci.eay Fellow of tub 



Society in Zooi.OGY. 



(Nineteen Text-figures.) 



The only Nematode hitherto recorded from tlie dtJiuestic j)igeoii in Australia, is 

 Ascartd'ia (•oliimhae Gmelin (lleterakis maculosa Kud.). T. Harvey .Johnston 

 reported the presence of this parasite in New South Wales in 1909 and 1910, and 

 recently (1918) gave a description of specimens found in Queensland. An earlier 

 reference hy Krefft (1871) to Ascaris sp. is stated by Professor Johnston to refer 

 to the same species. 



The material dealt with in the present paper comprises three distinct species, 

 two of which are new for this part of the w-orld. One of them has been found 

 l)reviously, only in America, and the original description of it is contained in a 

 circular of the Bureau of Animal Industry, U.S.A.. which is now out of print, 

 and therefore difficult to obtain. In view of tiiis, and of the verj' varying de- 

 scripti(ms and unsatisfactory figures contained in most of the existing records of 

 the other species concerned, I have thought it desirable to give fairly full notes 

 and drawings of the specimens examined here. 



The (lassification adopted is tliat used by Stiles and llassall (1905), Railliet 

 and Henry (1914), and Hall (191()), to whose work tlie reader is referi-ed for super- 

 family, family, and subfamily diagnoses. 



For the material examined I am indebted to Dr. S. Dodd. and Di. .1. H. 

 (Teland . 



Early in 1919 several pigeons, dying and dead, were sent to Dr. Dodd, at the 

 A'eterinary School of the Univei-sity of Sydney, to a.scertain the cause of the mor- 

 tality anumg the Hock. In the post-mortem examination, small filiform worms 

 were found in fair numbers throughout the length of the intestines; but the walls 

 of the alimentary canal appeared to be in a perfectly healthy condition, and it is 

 doubtful whether the worms were a ccmtributory cause of the deaths. Dr. Dodd 

 informs me that poisoning was suspected, aii<l that there were no more deaths 

 after steps were taken to prevent this. 



