184 RESEARCHES IN HELMIXTHOLOCxY AND PARASITOLOGY. 



divergent. The .spine.s are curved at the root, pointed at the free 

 end, and measure 0.05 to 0.06 mm. long. The upper lip i.s blunt 

 conical ; the terminal segment truncate. There appears to be no 

 distinct girdle, but the third, fourth, and fifth segments contain 

 capsuligenous glands and other organs pertaining to the sexual 

 apparatus. 



Several dead worms swarmed in the interior, with large ovate, 

 beaked, ciliated infusorians measuring from 0.05 to 0.06 mm. long 

 by 0.04 to 0.048 mm. broad. 



[Januaiy, 1885. No. 530. See Bibliography.] 



0)1 some Parasitic Jlorff/s of Birds.— Froi. Leidy stated that Dr. 

 B. H. Warren, of Westchester, much interested in ornithological 

 pursuits, had submitted to his examination a number of parasitic 

 worms obtained in the preparation of specimens. Recently he had 

 sent to him the carcass of a Snow Bird, /nuco hyciualis, in which he 

 reported a multitude of worms filling the thoracico-abdominal cavity 

 and extending into the neck and beneath the skin of the breast and 

 abdomen. From the carcass seventy-two worms were obtained, of 

 which two-thirds were females, ranging from 90 to 120 mm. in 

 length ; the rest males, ranging from 40 to 55 mm. From the abdo- 

 men of another bird Dr. Warren obtained five worms, three females 

 from 55 to 90 mm. and two males 40 and 55 mm. In twenty-two 

 birds examined by Dr. Warren the parasites were found only in the 

 two indicated. The worms appear to be the Filaria obiiisa, Rudolphi, 

 which infests the Hinnido ritsfica and other species of European 

 Swallows. The worms of the Snow Bird reach double the length 

 of those of the Swallows, but in other characters agree with the 

 descriptions of F. obtiisa, as given by Diesing and Dujardin, and 

 also with the figures given by the latter (Hist. Helminthes, pi. iii), 

 except that it is uncertain as to the existence in our specimens of 

 the buccal armature represented by Dujardin. The worms are 

 translucent white, with a chocolate-brown intestine and white uteri 

 and testes. The caudal extremit}^ is obtuse without appendages, 

 and in the male po.ssesses two spicules, of which the longer curved 

 one is 1.125 mm. long and the shorter twi.sted one 0.5 mm. long. 

 The ova, containing dev^eloped embryos, are 0.045 mm. long and 

 0.032 mm. broad. 



Six other specimens, apparently' also pertaining to Filaria obtusa, 

 Dr. Warren obtained from the abdominal cavity, partly imbedded 

 in the wall, of a Meadow Lark, Sturnella viagna. Two are females 



