392 BULLETIN 140, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



in that genus, Yseria coronata, having been left by them in Histio- 

 cephalus, which was Skrjabin's tentative assignment. They have 

 put Schistorophinae in the family Ancyracanthidae ; I have placed 

 it in Acuariidae, as Travassos had done formerly. A new subfamily, 

 Ancyracanthinae, has been made for Ancyracanthus by Yorke and 

 Maplestone; Ancyracanthopsis they place in Schistorophinae, the 

 only species listed by them in this genus being A. bilabiata, and the 

 only species in Ancyracanthus being the type species, A. pvmiatvfidus. 

 In addition to Ancyracanthopsis, they have included in Schistoro- 

 phinae the genera Sciadiocara, which I put in Acuariinae, and 

 Viguiera, which I put in Spirurinae, family Spiruridae. With regard 

 to the genus Spirura these authors and also Baylis and Daubney, 

 whose Synopsis of the Families and Genera of Nematoda (1926, 

 277 pp., London) appeared soon after Yorke and Maplestone's book, 

 limit the genus to forms having a cuticular boss near the anterior 

 end of the body. Hall (1916) did not make this a generic character, 

 nor did Railliet and Henry (1911) when they placed the two species 

 uncinipenis and zschokkei in this genus, neither of these species pos- 

 sessing this cuticular boss. Yorke and Maplestone apparently do 

 not list these two species in any genus. The nematodes appear to 

 be closely related to Spirura talpae, the type species, and at the 

 present time it would appear advisable to leave them in that genus, 

 as I have done, and consider the presence or absence of the cuticular 

 boss a specific rather than a generic character. 



SUMMARY 



The present work gathers together the descriptions of nematodes 

 of the suborders Strongylata, Ascaridata, and Spirurata found in 

 birds, the great majority of these descriptions until now having been 

 available only as written in foreign languages, and many of them in 

 obscure publications to which most workers would not have access. 

 The purpose of the paper is to facilitate the identification and study 

 of nematodes parasitic in birds. The author recognizes the two 

 orders of Ward, the Myosyringata and the Trichosyringata, and the 

 six suborders as made by various other workers : Ehabdiasata, Oxy- 

 urata, Strongylata, Ascaridata, Spirurata, and Trichurata. Of these 

 the first two, the Rhabdiasata and Oxyurata, as used by the present 

 writer, contain no forms found in birds. The next three suborders, 

 the Strongylata, Ascaridata, and Spirurata are dealt with in the 

 present paper. Although the author includes under the Spirurata 

 the Filarioidea, in order to unite the latter with the other closely- 

 related superfamily of heteroxenous nematodes, the Spiruroidea, the 

 present paper does not deal with the Filarioidea or with the sixth 



