23 



RAL HiSTOUY. 



Inspecting Veterinary Surgeon Burt in his recent Report on the 

 operations along the Nile, says that maggots in the nostrils caused 

 great inconvenience, an offensive discharge tinged with blood, and a 

 c ontinual shaking of the head, the camels being dull, off-feed, and the 

 maggots larger than those in wounds and " more resembling a grub.''' 

 I. V. S. Oliphaiit records their frequent occurrence in Afghanistan 

 during the 1878-79 Campaign and V. S. (1st CI.) Ravment noted their 

 frequence in the Soudan. V. S. Fenton brought me some specimens 

 when he returned from Suakim this year with the Madras Troops, 

 from these specimens I derive the following conclusions : — 



The camel bot is half as big again as that of the horse, is much 

 softer and more tapering towards the hookless extremity, whereas 

 it is blunter and much more compressed towards the hooked end 

 while the section of the horse bot is evenly oval, that of the camel 

 bot is flattened on the lower surface. In both the body-ring 

 hearing spines are nine in number and the spines point from the 

 hook end. The following contrasted list of characters may best 

 be given in the tabulated form : — 



Horse Bot. 

 Spines — Small, hard, sharp,- very numer- 

 ous on each ring and largest on the 

 central rings. Small extra spines 

 alternate with the main ones and are 

 situated behind and in the intervals 

 between them, forming as it were, 

 two rows in each circle. The bulging 

 parts between the rings are smooth. ' 



Hook-end. — Hooks brownish-black and 

 sharply divergent, short and much 

 curved, situated inferioily near the 

 extremity of a long narrow hook-end. 

 A central organ of cbitine is midway 

 between the bases of the books, and 

 there are a few spinelets above and 

 on either side of two well marked 



Camel Bot. 

 Spines. — Fleshy and in single row, very 

 large, teat-like, and blunt. The 

 largest are in the central rings 

 but not markedly so. The main 

 spines vary in size and tend to- 

 collect into groups with spaces be- 

 tween them. Those on the lateral 

 parts of the lower surface tend to 

 develope into temporal'}' feet. On the 

 most projecting parts of the segments 

 between t^c rings of spines are small 

 spinelets which below arc very numer- 

 ous and form continuous bands. In 

 the different parts of the body the 

 teat-like spines vary in relative posi- 

 tion (vide diagram). 



Hook-end. — Hooks black ; diverge at an 

 acute angle and are slender, long, and 

 little curved, situated below the 

 anterior extremity and beneath a 6- 

 lobed mass surrounded above and on 

 each side by irregular circlets of 

 spinelets which communicate at each 

 extremity with the first /one of 



