R. T. LEWIS ON SOME AUSTRALIAN TICKS. 225 



shortly to send over some specimens of the ticks which were 

 abundant in Queensland ; and in December last a packet arrived 

 containing ten small bottles in which were a large number of ticks 

 of different species preserved in a 3-per-cent. solution of formalin. 

 The labels on the bottles indicated the localities from which these 

 ticks came, and the animals on which they were found, but none 

 of the species were named. The very cursory examination which 

 I have as yet been able to give them shows them to be well 

 preserved from decomposition, but so far as I can see them through 

 the bottles, I fear very few of the cattle ticks are sufficiently 

 perfect to make good specimens for a collection, the majority 

 apparently having been j)ulled off the animals to which they were 

 attached, with the usual result that the barbed rostrum has been 

 broken off and left behind. Briefly enumerated, the contents of 

 the bottles are as follows : — 



JSTo. 1. — "Larval Cattle Ticks." These apparently differ in no 

 way from those which I have frequently hatched out, and have 

 on several occasions exhibited alive in this room. 



No. 2 is labelled " Cattle Ticks Mixed." This bottle I have 

 here, and those who examine it will doubtless agree that the 

 description " mixed " is perfectly correct. 



No. 3. — " Male Cattle Ticks." About six specimens, of about 

 the size of those shown in Mr. Pound's diagram. 



No. 4. — " Cattle Ticks in Various Stages." Five or six different 

 species. 



Nos. 5 and 6.—" Male and Female Dog Ticks." These differ 

 from the common European dog tick Ixodes Ricinus. 



Nos. 7, 8, and 9.— Contain specimens of cattle ticks from Java, 

 South America, and New Guinea respectively. 



No. 10 is labelled "Queensland Fowl Ticks." 



In the letter which accompanied this consignment, Mr. Pound 

 gives some further particulars which are of interest as the result 

 of his personal observations. He tells us that the " Cattle Ticks " 

 are those which are the cause of the dreaded tick fever in cattle, 

 but although these creatures will often attach themselves to, 

 and even mature on other animals, such as the horse, the sheep, 

 and the kangaroo, their bites never set up fever in eitheri; they 

 have never been found attached to dogs, and the females are far 

 more numerous and larger than the males. The species which 

 infest dogs, both the native dingoes and the imported domestic 



