AVES 441 



announcing his acquaintance with a filaria infesting the eye of 

 the fowl. On the 9th of May I also received from Dr Manson 

 the head of a bird showing examples of the worm. As the 

 species is new to science I have proposed to call it Filaria 

 Mansoni, after the discoverer. The male is f" and the female f ' 

 in length. Of the injurious nematodes, giving rise to avian 

 epizooty, probably one of the most destructive is Ascaris 

 maculosa infesting pigeons. On the 9th of October, 1873, I 

 received a letter from Dr J. Alexander Macdonald, of Woburn, 

 Bedfordshire, stating that he had forwarded to me a pigeon 

 which had been found dead on the previous morning. It 

 seems that the owner of the bird had erected a large pigeon- 

 house, and had imported a number of Antwerp smerles, these 

 birds all continuing in a perfect state of health until about a 

 week before the above-mentioned date, when, to use Dr Mac- 

 donald' s words " first one and then another was attacked, and 

 so on, until four or five of the pigeons had died after a few 

 hours' illness." The suddenness of these attacks not unnatu- 

 rally suggested poisoning ; and, accordingly, says my informant, 

 the owner " had the curiosity to open one of the birds, when, 

 to his astonishment, he found the intestines stuffed with 

 worms." Two days later I received a letter from Dr Mac- 

 donald, stating that several others of the flock had died, and it 

 further appeared to him probable that the daily list of sick and 

 dying would continue to increase. On the 14th of the month 

 three more of the birds were dead. On the 4th of the follow- 

 ing November, the same correspondent obligingly informed me 

 that the epidemic had been "at last mastered." It seems that 

 altogether twelve birds had perished. On the 9th of October 

 one of the birds was carefully examined by me, and the results 

 were so interesting that I am constrained to give a few of the 

 particulars originally communicated to theZoological Society. As 

 stated in my paper, the whole intestinal tract of the dead bird was 

 crowded with these ascarides. The small intestine was inflamed 

 throughout, and showed several large ulcerated patches ; never- 

 theless, there were no traces of emaciation. From this it was 

 evident that the parasites had grown quickly, the malady 

 having a correspondingly rapid formation. The distribution of 

 the parasites was curious. One specimen, two inches long, 

 reached from the crop to the proventriculus. The cavities of 

 this organ and of the gizzard were crammed with worms com- 

 pletely blocking the passage. Three of the worms had also 



