SUCKING INSECTS. 191 



quainted, it would therefore seem, with the device of 

 the shepherds in Hungary, who grease their clothes 

 with hog''s lard to deter the fleas, — nor with the old 

 English preventive: — 



" While wormwood hath seed, get a handful or twaine 

 To save against March to make flea refraine: 

 Where chamber is swept and wormwood is strown, 

 No flea for his life dare abide to be known *." 



Linnaeus was in error in stating that the domestic 

 cat (JFelU ma?iicnlati(s, Tem3IInck?) is not infested 

 with fleas ; for in kittens in particular they abound as 

 numerously as upon dogs f- 



Fleas, it may be worth remarking, are not all of 

 one species, those which infest animals and birds 

 differing in many particulars from the common bed 

 flea (Pulex irritans), and as many as twelve distinct 

 sorts have been found in Britain alone |. The most 

 annoying species, however, is fortunately not indi- 

 genous, being a native of the tropical latitudes, and 

 variously named in the West Indies, chigoe, jigger, 

 nigua, tungua, and pique {Pulex penetrans^ Linn.) 



Chigoe (^Pulex penetrans'). 



According to Stedman, this " is a kind of small sand- 

 flea, which gets in between the skin and the flesh 

 without being felt, and generally under the nails of 

 the toes ; where, while it feeds, it keeps growing till it 



* Tusser, Points of Goode Husbandry. t J' I^« 



I Insect TransformationSj p. 393. 



