ANOPLURORUM BRITANNIA. 63 



SUB-GENUS I. DOCOPHORUS. (Nitzsch.) 



SUB-GENERIC CHARACTER. 



Head large, sub-triangular, generally very broad at the 

 base and rotundate, furnished with two moveable organs 

 (trabecitlce} before the antennae; antennce simple and 

 uniform in both sexes ; prothorax small, much narrower 

 than the head ; meso-thorax and meta-tJiorax united, 

 large, either transverse or angular ; abdomen broad, 

 ovate, sometimes nearly oval, or elongate-ovate, last seg- 

 ment in the male entire and rotundate. 



This division or sub-genus is by far the most numerous 

 in species, and appears to infest Birds of each of the Orders, 

 excepting Columbidcz and Gallinacea, upon which I have 

 never detected any ; nearly all the species are characterized 

 by two dark coloured lines, which pass diagonally from the 

 trabeculse to the occiput, or point of junction with the pro- 

 thorax, and by the segments of the abdomen having a dark 

 coloured triangular or oblong patch on each side, which 

 very rarely extend and meet in the centre. 



* Metathorax terminating posteriorly in an angle ; trabeculse large and 

 distinct; head with two diagonal dark lines. 



1. DOCOPHORUS ATRATUS. (Louse of the Rook.) 



Plate IV. Fig. 8. 



Milky white, shining, and hairy; abdomen oval, with tri- 

 angular deepf uscous yellow, lateral patches, margined with 

 black ; femora and tibiae with black bands. 



