R. T. LEWIS ON SOME AUSTRALIAN TICKS. 227 



Rhynchoprion Colunihce of Herman, and possibly also with Argas 

 Fischeri from Egypt, and Argas MauritianaSj or even with the 

 poison bug of Persia, Argas Persicus. The " Canterbury Tick " 

 was described and figured in "Science Gossip" for 1874, by 

 Mr. James Fullagar of Canterbury ; and I remember the late 

 Mr. Thomas Curties calling attention to it and exhibiting a 

 specimen at one of the meetings of the Club then held in the 

 Library of University College. 



My efforts to obtain specimens for my Cape correspondent were 

 not attended with success. Owners of pigeons to whom I applied 

 repudiated the idea that their birds harboured such vermin. 

 Nor could I procure a mounted specimen from any dealer. An 

 inquiry addressed to our member, Mr. Rossiter, only elicited the 

 information that Mr. Fullagar had been dead some years and his 

 collections dispersed. Further inquiries on the part of Mr. Rossiter 

 led to the discovery of the official of the Cathedral who was the 

 original finder, but this gentleman was only able to inform me 

 that since the restoration of the places where the ticks were first 

 met with, the creatures had entirely disappeared. Mr. Charles 

 Curties had, however, a mounted specimen in his possession, of 

 which he made a very excellent photograph, and this I sent to 

 Cape Town as the best I could do in the matter. I had a reply 

 by last week's mail to the effect that the writer had on careful 

 comparison no doubt whatever that the Canterbury Tick was 

 identical with the species which attacked fowls at night in the 

 Colony. It often happens that we search far from home for 

 what is close at hand ; and so it proved in this instance, for whilst 

 taking all this trouble to obtain a specimen of Argas rejlexus 

 elsewhere, a dozen were all the time upon my own table in 

 Mr. Pound's bottle labelled " Queensland Fowl Ticks." 



I hope to be able to mount some not only of these but of each 

 other kind of tick forwarded by Mr. Pound, and to bring up 

 a set, when ready, for the Cabinet of the Club. Up to the present 

 time, however, I have been unable to secure the needful leisure 

 for the purpose. 



Since writing the foregoing I have been favoured by Mr. C. L. 

 Curties with the loan of two slides of the original " Canterbury 

 Ticks " found by Mr. Fullagar, and mounted in Canada balsam 

 by Amos Topping. The most careful comparison shows these to 

 be identical in every respect with those sent from Brisbane by 



