Plague of Ticks 163 
tageous. My experience in tropical countries has led me 
to the conclusion that in such parts at least there is one 
serious drawback to the advantages of having the skin 
covered with hair. It affords cover for parasitical insects, 
which, if the skin were naked, might more easily be got rid of. 
No one who has not lived and moved about amongst the 
bush of the tropics can appreciate what a torment the 
different parasitical species of acarus or ticks are. On my 
first journey in Northern Brazil, I had my legs inflamed and 
ulcerated from the ankles to the knees from the irritation 
produced by a minute red tick that is brushed off the low 
shrubs, and attaches itself to the passer-by. This little 
insect is called the “ Mocoim ” by the Brazilians, and is a 
great torment. It is so minute that except by careful search- 
ing it cannot be perceived, and it causes an intolerable 
itching. If the skin were thickly covered with hair, it would 
be next to impossible to get rid of it. Through all tropical 
America, during the dry season, a brown tick (Ixodes bovis), 
varying in size from a pin’s head to a pea, abounds. In 
Nicaragua, in April, they are very small, and swarm upon 
the plains, so that the traveller often gets covered with them. 
They get upon the tips of the leaves and shoots of low shrubs, 
and stand with their hind-legs stretched out. Each foot 
has two hooks or claws, and with these it lays hold of any 
animal brushing past. All large land animals seem subject 
to their attacks. I have seen them on snakes and iguanas, 
on many of the large birds, especially on the curassows. 
They abound on all the large mammals, and on many of the 
small ones. Sick and weak animals are particularly infested 
with them, probably because they have not the strength to 
rub and pick them off, and they must often hasten, if they 
do not cause their death. The herdsmen, or ‘“ vacqueros,” 
keep a ball of soft wax at their houses, which they rub over 
their skim when they come in from the plains, the small 
“ garrapatos ”’ sticking to it, whilst the larger ones are picked 
off. How the small ones would be got rid of if the skin had 
a hairy coat I know not, but the torment of the ticks would 
certainly be greatly increased. 
There are other insect parasites, for the increase and 
protection of which a hairy coating is even more favourable 
than it is for the ticks. The Pedzculi are specially adapted 
it 
