70 ANIMAL PARASITES AND MESSMATES. 



the skins of birds coming from Japan, Australia, Africa, 

 and the two Americas. 



Professor Grube, of Breslau, has pubhshed the 

 description of the insects and acaridse found dm^ing the 

 travels of Middendorf in Siberia. These descriptions 

 relate especially to the Philopter£e of birds, the Pedi- 

 culinse of the mammalia, a flea of the Mustela Siherica, 

 and an acarus of the Lemmus. Quite recently, an 

 American naturalist, Mr. Packard, who has undertaken 

 the study of so many different subjects, has published 

 in the ''American Naturalist" the description, accom- 

 panied by an engraving, of the Menopon picicola, found 

 on the Pico'ides Arcticus from the lower Geyser basin, 

 Wyoming territory, also of the Goniodes Merriamanus, 

 the Tetrao Richardsoni, and the Goniodes mephitidis, 

 found on a Mephitis from Fire-Hole Basin, Wyoming 

 territory ; of the Nirmus huteonivorus, from a Buteo 

 Swainsonii ; and of Docopliorus Syrniiy from Syrnium 

 nehulosum. 



A great number of these insects live between the 

 feathers of birds, and can be more easily observed, since 

 they detach themselves after the death of their host. 

 They are easily found on the skins of birds prepared for 

 museums. These ticks form a family under the name of 

 Ricinias, and this family is divided into two parts, the 

 Liotheidas and the Philopteridw, 



Among the many generic divisions, one of the most 

 interesting has received the name of Trichodectes ; it 

 contains twenty species, one of which lives on the dog, 

 another on the cat, another on the ox ; in a word, 

 we discover a distinct species on each of the domestic 



