30 



with quick-lime and carbolic acid. The nests should be renewed or 

 disinfected with essence of eucalyptus, with turpentine or with petrol. 

 A good method of disinfecting a nest is to place in it an empty egg into 

 which has been introduced a sponge soaked with a disinfecting essence, 

 the aperture in the shell being stopped up with wax ; the fumes escape 

 through the pores of the shell and so protect the sitting hen. Dis- 

 infection of the birds is less easy. Insecticide powders can be used, 

 or the Lagrange method of sulphur fumigation may be employed. 

 In this method the body of the animal is enclosed in a box, leaving the 

 head outside. A stick of sulphur is burned in the box and the animal 

 taken out six or seven minutes afterwards. This operation should be 

 carried out at night before the parasites leave their hosts. The larvae 

 of Trombidiidae cause serious trouble among birds. They attach 

 themselves at the base of the feathers and pierce the skin with their 

 rostra. The birds can be dusted with flowers of sulphur, treated with 

 pomade of oxide of zinc or sulphurous pomades, or rubbed with carbolic 

 acid or vaseline treated with benzine or petroleum. When fowls are 

 affected by Sarcoptennus nidulans, the swellings are cut, the contents 

 pressed out and the inside washed with a mixture of balsam of Peru 

 and alcohol. Another mite disease, caused by Epidernioptes hilohatus 

 and E. bifiircatus, is rather common, the pests living on the skin and 

 producing whitish areas. This may also be treated with a mixture of 

 balsam of Peru and alcohol, or with a solution of cresol. 



Carpenter (G. D. H.). Second Report on the Bionomics of Glossina 

 fuscipes {palpalis) of Uganda. — Repts. Sleeping Sickness Commiss. 

 Roy. Soc., London, xiv, 1913, pp. 1-37, 1 sketch map, 36 figs., 4 

 charts. 



The author conducted the studies which are described in this paper 

 on the Island of Bugalla in the north- w^est corner of Lake Victoria. 

 He describes the locality carefully and notes that where the coast- 

 line was rocky the forest came to the water, where sandy there was a bit 

 of foreshore, on which flies were more numerous than elsewhere. In 

 one such locality pupae were to be found, although none could be 

 found on another piece of sandy foreshore on the northern side of the 

 island. The species of Glossina which forms the subject of this report 

 is the Eastern race of G. palpalis. 



Over 9,000 flies were caught and marked in various ways between 

 18th March and 26th April, 1912, and the longest interval before 

 recapture was 247-253 days in the case of two male flies (still in good 

 condition) and 126-131 days in the case of one female fly. This may 

 be compared with the results of experiments made at Jinja (mainland) 

 wliich gave 182 days for the female and 149 days for the male. The 

 author thinks that on the mainland it is probable that the fly will not 

 live beyond the first dry season which it encounters a few months after 

 it has hatched out ; whilst on the lake margin flies may be found all 

 the year through, and probably those which have emerged shortly 

 before the onset of the dry season are better able to resist adverse 

 influences. He then goes on to discuss climatic conditions at length 

 and shows that they have a marked effect upon the total numbers of 

 flies, the proportions of the sexes and the rate of larviposition. The 

 number of flies captured per hour was found to vary more or less 



