Blood P(tr<i>^ifes. 237 



Zooloir cal Gardens, an interval of 6 days passint; between the 

 first and second lots, and over a week between these and tlie 

 last lot. Tliey were comparatively numerous in all 8 birds, 

 especially so in one. and were present chiefly in smears from 

 the heart-blood, kidney and liver. Tliey were found living and 

 motile up to more than 45 hours after reaching us, in a liver 

 which had been kept after reception in physiological saline. 

 This is in marked contrast to the statement by Bancroft th;it 

 " inmiediately after the bird is shot is the proper time to 

 examine the blood . . if the bird is left for 6 or more 



hours it is difficult to find them, and after 30 hours impossible. 

 The worms soon die and are then quickly dissolved.'' It is 

 more in harmony with what Yon Linstow (1891, p. 302) found 

 in the case of the Filaria of the crow, viz., that the larvae lived 

 for 48 hours after the death of the bird. None of our speci- 

 mens were seen by us till some hours after their death. 



Bancroft (1889, p. 59) assumes that the intermediate host of 

 the filaria which he found in these fifteen species of birds, in- 

 cluding several crows, would be the lice of the bird, since on 

 the Blue Mountain parrot he had noted the occurrence of a 

 blood-sucking louse. Tfiis is somewhat at variance witli the 

 opinion expressed by Yon Linstow, that the crow becomes 

 infected directly by eating the infested entrails of dead birds 

 (Yon Linstow, 1891, p. 303). No other j^arasites, either 

 external or internal, could be found on these birds, several of 

 which Avere most carefully examined for this purpose. The 

 absence of adult filariae from all these specimens is, perhaps, 

 not to be wondered at since Dr. Bancroft, after an evidently 

 very careful search, found them in not more than 6 individuals 

 out of 112 birds, and 3 out of " a large number." 



As to the general condition of the birds, 2 were in fairly good 

 condition, though the others were extremely thin, otherwise 

 appearing healthy. 



No indications were present as to the catise of death of the 

 birds, other than the presence of these filarial larvae, though in 

 the light of their presence in so many birds apparently shot, as 

 shown by Dr. Bancroft, their jjathological effect cannot be 

 regarded as certain. As will be seen on reference to the figures, 

 3 types of larvae are present. Whether they represent different 



