146 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [March, 



tera incerta. In support of this, the microscopical sections do not 

 show necrosis as in spiropteriasis, and we do not think that the 

 worms cause serious disease. The female certainly extracts hemo- 

 globin from the host, but does not seem to be wasteful as in 

 uncinariasis. The cagemate of this bird, which is living and also 

 infested, appears perfectly healthy, and is standing such minor 

 blood loss very well. 



The Male. — From the fact that the specimens were found only 

 after teasing the mucosa (not at all in the luminal slime), it is pre- 

 sumed that they live in the same situations as the females — in 

 the crypts of the proventricular glands. This is, however, hard to 

 prove, on account of the small size, translucency, and relatively 

 small number of males. Serial sections might or might not, from 

 this last circumstance, include a male. 



The largest male measures 6 mm. in length. At its widest part 

 it measures 125 mc. The body is subcylindrical, filiform, tapering 

 anteriorly to end rather abruptly in a rounded extremity. The head 

 is not separable from the body. It tapers more gracefully posteri- 

 orly, ending in a tail which is curved strongly toward the cloaca. 

 Tip of tail is sharp, recurved from cloaca after the fashion of the 

 point of a fish-hook robbed of its barb. Cuticle finely striated 

 transversely, thin, transparent. (Plate IV, figs. 1 and 2.) 



None of the male specimens display the blood-red color so con- 

 spicuous in the female. 



The oral opening is circular. It leads to a narrow buccal cavity, 

 which abruptly opens into an oesophagus mth thick circularly dis- 

 posed musculature. This is succeeded by a straight, simple intes- 

 tine, which becomes coiled at its posterior third, to end 300 mc. 

 from the caudal tip. Cloacal opening surrounded by a pouting, 

 prominent cuticular ring. 



Spicules unequal. The shorter measures 150 mc, The longer 

 measures 5,400 mc. in length, and when retracted. extends to within 

 600 mc. of the anterior extremity. This spicule is, then, nine-tenths 

 as long as the individual. One specimen was projected to a distance 

 of 3.0 mm. This length does not represent the full extent to which 

 it may project, as a part of the spicule had been broken off. ' There 

 are two pairs of preanal and two pairs of postanal papillae. There is 

 no bursa. 



Tropidocerca contorta n. sp. 



This worm falls easily into the genus Tropisnris (Diesing), later 

 changed to Tropidocerca. This genus includes numerous worms which 



