FLEAS 117 



frustration as he notes one unique opportunity after the other thrown 

 away. Scores of nests of rare oceanic birds were dug up out of holes 

 and examined — but no fleas were collected. It is painful to contem- 

 plate what a revealing and interesting appendix could have been 

 written to Murphy's first-rate monograph. 



Gnathoncus punctulatus (x 37), a beetle 

 which lives in birds' nests and feeds on fleas 



