172 



etc., of the nine specimens in the Museum Collection, all of which 

 are from Cape Colony or the East Africa Protectorate, are as 

 follows. — Cape Colony : Mount Stewart, May, 1886, — the type of 

 the species {J. H. Cawood, — received in exchange from O. E. 

 Janson) ; Deelfontein, 1902 {jyresented by Colonel A. T. Sloggett, 

 C.M.G., R.A.M.C.) ; Phillipsdale, Worcester, November 20th, 

 1907 [T. B. Goodall). East Africa Protectorate : Makumbu, 

 between February 6th and March 8th, and Athi-ya-Mawe, between 

 May 6th and 19th, 1899 {C. S. Betton) ; Ukambu, Machakos, 1900 

 {Captain Richard Craivshay). It should be noted that the figure 

 shows the wings in the resting position, and that the markings on 

 the scutellum are represented as seen in East African specimens ; 

 in the examples from Cape Colony at present available for com- 

 parison the lateral scutellar spots are scarcely visible. 



According to a correspondent quoted by the late Miss Ormerod,* 

 it was stated by the collector of the type of the species that at Mount 

 Stewart, Cape Colony, in May, 1886, these flies were in " thousands 

 on the ostriches, that they irritated the birds so that half of their 

 time was taken up in pecking at the flies, and that, judging from the 

 increase in the last two years, if something was not done to destroy 

 them, the feathers would not be worth sending to market, and the 

 writer believed that in time they would destroy the birds." Whether 

 the treatment adopted, which consisted in dressing the infested birds 

 with sulphur, was successful it is impossible to say, but in 1905 it 

 was stated by Mr. C. P. Lounsbury, Government Entomologist, 

 Cape Colony, that Hippobosca struthionis " leads to serious 

 deterioration of the feathers. "f 



With reference to the specimens taken by him at Phillipsdale, 

 Worcester, Cape Colony, Mr. T. B. Goodall has kindly supplied the 

 following note : — " From an ostrich six months old ; found under 

 the wings and tail, where the skin is bare and thin. The flies run 

 over the body and fly just like H. equina, L. One specimen on 

 being disturbed left the bird and was caught on the writer's coat." 



* Of. E. A. Ormerod, op. cit., p. 58. 



' t C/. C. P. Lounsbury, in "Science in South Africa" (T. Maskew Miller: Cape 

 Town, Pretoria and Bulawayo, 1905), p. .372. 



