246 [Kovember, 



ijroup — Intrinsic interest and partly because species with so defined a 

 liabitat may, witli suitable iiianipulation, be made to yield further 

 valuable information as to the bionomics! of the Mallophaga. One 

 point on which light might be shed may be mentioned. Very exti-a- 

 ordinary indeed must be the changes by which the meal of a biting 

 louse becomes physiologically available for its ingester. But ordinarily 

 that meal may, to begin with, be exceedingly complex. A louse in the 

 course of a day may feed on feather fibre, epidermal scales and powder, 

 and even the skin itself if roughened, while blood extravasated in any 

 casual way is grecdih^ devoured. Within the quill, on the other hand, 

 the food supply, once " die seele " has disappeared, is of uniform quality, 

 and I shoidd suggest that comparative analyses of the pith of the 

 rhachis and of the grey faecal sand would yield results of interest. The 

 difficulty of course would be to get the material in analysable quantities, 

 but it is not an insurmountable one. 



I believe the name of this GoJpocepludum to be G. p(deJlatum 

 Piag.^ (p. 2r)i, pi. x, fig. 8). So far as I am aware, the species has not 

 been recorded since its description by the French author, and this in 

 view of the notes already given is hardly astonishing. 



Henry Dcnn^^- (p. 207) has recorded the same or similar pheno- 

 mena in the case of Colpocepliahiv} favcscens. His remarks nre worth 

 quoting in full : " To the Earl of Derby I am indebted for several 

 exami)les from the Harpy Eagle {Harpyia destructor'). On the 14th 

 ot" November, 1837, IMr. Yarrell^ (p. 127) exhibited, at a meeting of the 

 Zoological Society of London, a quill from the wing of the above bird, 

 which had died while in the menagerie of his lordship at Knowsle}', and 

 which was found upon examination to be infested with a great number 

 of a species of GolpocepliaJum. It appeared that these minute creatures 

 had chosen for their place of retreat the hollow of the large quill 

 feathers, which were filled with their exuviae ; two circular apertures 

 situated ne;\r the base of the quill afforded the animals access to its 

 interior. Another quill, infested with the above, his lordship obligingly 

 forwarded to me, with the follow'ing remarks : ' My superintendent 

 lately found in a young Harpy Eagle, who was not moulting kindl}', two 

 feathers, of which the quills when extracted were filled with a substance 

 he could not make out, he opened one and found the whole base of the 

 quill fdled with lice, at that time alive, but they soon died; there was at 

 first no apparent opening, but on a close microscopic examination two 

 small holes were observed at the base of the web, since then he has found 

 and extracted four more ; in one, besides the lice, observing something to 

 move, he oj.ened it and found a large white maggot.' From the hundreds 



