Maskell. — On some Tick-jmrasitcs of the Kiiui. 291 



not considering it a true tick ; other writers, however, do not 

 take this view. 



There is one point of interest in connection with our New 

 Zealand forms of these parasites. I do not find that in other 

 countries a true Ixodes is found on anything but manimals 

 and reptiles : cattle, sheep, dogs, snakes, deer, &c., are the 

 usual victims. Some species of Argas are found on birds. 

 But all the ticks so far reported as probably indigenous to 

 New Zealand and the neighbouring islands infest birds. In 

 1884 I reported a true Ixodes on the penguin, which Mr. T. 

 W. Kirk afterwards found also on a gull. Mr. Kirk reported 

 another in 1886 on the albatros ; and now I have two more 

 on the kiwi. It is a recognised fact, I believe, that ticks live 

 amongst grass and trees as well as on animals, and attach 

 themselves to an animal as it passes by. It is in this way 

 that they spread so rapidly, and that a whole country becomes 

 a nest of "tick-fever." I suppose that birds also pick up 

 these parasites from the ground or from shrubs. In our 

 forests, therefore, it is presumable that ticks exist pretty fre- 

 quently, and that other birds may hereafter be found to har- 

 bour these undesirable guests. 



Ticks are usually not attractive to the sight, irrespective 

 of their propensities. Some, however, are ornamented in 

 various ways, as, for example, the specimen of a cattle-tick 

 from Natal which I exhibit to you this evening. If it were 

 not that this (which is not the same as the Queensland tick) 

 is a most diabolical brute, one might almost characterize it as 

 handsome. 



Order ARACHNOIDEA. 



• Sub-order ACARINA. 



Family Ixodid^. 



Genus Ixodes, Latr. 



Body covered with a tough leathery skin, which, in the 

 female, is capable of extension. Dorsum bearing, at the 

 cephalic extremity, a more or less elliptical shield. Mouth- 

 organs consisting of a tubular rostrum with two palpi, pro- 

 truded in the adult in front of the head. Eyes absent. 

 Feet, eight in the adult, six in the young; claw double, 

 with a caruncle or pad beneath. 



The distinctive characters of the genus, separating it from 

 Argas, Latr., are the protruding rostrum of the adult, the 

 dorsal shield, and the pad beneath the claws. 



Ixodes apteridis, sp. nov. Plata XVII., figs. 1-6. 



Female wdien full-grown reaching -|in., but the size is 

 dependent upon distention with food ; some specimens seen 



