98 Mr. H. J. Carter on Microscopic Filaridse. 



appears to have been flesh-colour for £ths of its base, and dark 

 at the tip. 



Total length 4£ inches; bill 1; wing 2%; tail If. 



Female. Similar, but paler in colour. 



Habitat. Oaxaca, in Western Mexico. 



Remark. Although I have but little doubt that I have assigned 

 this bird to its natural place, it is with some degree of hesitation 

 that I have included it in the genus Cyanomyia : its sordid, 

 smoky-grey style of colouring renders it very distinct from every 

 other. 



XI. — On Dracunculus and Microscopic Filaridse in the Island of 

 Bombay. By H.J. Carter, Esq., Bombay. 



[Concluded from p. 44.] 



Observations. — Those who have given their attention to the 

 subject cannot fail to see that these worms belong to Ehrenberg's 

 Anguillula, out of which Dujardin has formed his genus Rltab- 

 ditis, which is closely allied to our microscopic Filaridse, as the 

 following characters of this genus will show : — 



" Body filiform, narrowed at the ends ; mouth terminal, 

 round, naked ; anus subterminal ; tail of the male either naked 

 or furnished with a membrane (winged) ; a double spiculum ; 

 tail of the female conical, acute. The mouth is succeeded by an 

 oblong cavity (pharynx), which is furnished with two or three 

 longitudinal bacilla, and is distinct from the oesophagus, which 

 is muscular and fusiform or cylindrical; stomach top-shaped 

 or spherical, furnished with a kind of dental armature. The 

 tail of the female is frequently prolonged into a fine point. The 

 uterus is bifid, and the vulva situated near the posterior third 

 of the body*." 



Descriptive, however, as this is of the worms to which we 

 have been giving our attention, yet it will not suit them in all 

 respects. Some have papillae about the mouth, others have ten- 

 tacula or cirrhi attached to the head, and others have neither. 

 The mouth in some is simple and suctorial, while in others it is 

 armed with an exsertile proboscis, which appears to be but a 

 continuation of the oesophagus ; others, again, have eyes ; and 

 probably many other differences will present themselves on a 

 more extended examination of their species, which promise to 

 be as numerous as all those of the Nematoid Entozoa put toge- 

 ther, if we assume that the latter are derived from the former. 

 Hence it is desirable not to begin to group until many more of 



* Micrograph. Diet., Griffith and Henfrey, p. 34. 



