INSECTS AND WAR 19 



lopes, goats, wild boars usually sleep in different 

 places each recurrent night, and to this is pro- 

 bably due the fact that, with the exception of 

 two rare species one taken in Northern China 

 and the other in Transcaucasia the Ungulates 

 have furnished descriptive science with no fleas 

 at all. Both of these Ungulate fleas are allied 

 to the burrowing-fleas, or " chigoes/' 



I know none of my readers will believe me 

 when I write that the same is true of monkeys ; 

 but I do this on the undoubted authority of 

 Mr. Harold Russell, who has recently published 

 a charming little monograph on these lively 

 little creatures. Monkeys in nature are cleanly 

 in their habits ; and although in confinement 

 occasionally a human flea attacks them, and 

 although a chigoe bores sometimes into the toes 

 of a gorilla or chimpanzee, " speaking generally, 

 it may be said that no fleas have been found 

 truly parasitic on monkeys." Whatever the 

 monkeys are looking for, it is not the fleas. 

 What they seek is, in effect, little scabs of scurf, 

 which are made palatable to their taste by a 

 certain sour sweat. 



As a rule, each host has its own species of flea, 

 but though, for the most part, Pulex initans is 



