82 COTYLE RIPARIA. 



The young of the House-Martin (^Hirundo urh'ica) abound with what 

 seem to be Uce (Anoplura) ; and Mr. P. J. van Beneden says, in ' Animal 

 Parasites,' p. 121, that Martins "are usually infested by many vermin, 

 among which we find a fly of considerable size, which looks much like 

 a spider — the Ornithomyia hirundinis. It moves about among the feathers 

 with astonishing facility, and is not always confined to the same bird; it 

 quits its host to establish itself upon another, and sometimes throws itself 

 upon man to suck his blood. Some years ago these insects penetrated, in 

 the middle of the night, through the open windows, into one of the 

 apai^tments of the Military Hospital at Louvain ; and the next morning the 

 skin of many of the patients, and especially the bed-linen, were covered with 

 stains of blood. The physicians sent me some of these insects, not knowing 

 whence they had come or whether they had been the cause of this 

 annoyance. During the night these Ornithomyice had quitted their hosts to 

 attack the soldiers." 



Stenopteryx hirundinis. Ornithomyia avicularia *. 



The woodcuts represent Stenopteryx hirundinis and Ornithomyia avicu- 

 laria — the former drawn from an example in the Bi'itish Museum, the latter 

 from specimens obtained by me alive at Brighton, in August, taken ofl^ the 

 Brown Linnet (^Linota cannahina, Linn.), and said by the birdcatchers also 

 to frequent the Stonechat and Yellowhammer. The two are very different, 

 as will be seen by the illustrations. 



* In the ' Insecta Britannica/ by Walker, is a long description of this fly. It has been 

 described as 0. viridis, Latreille and ^Nleigen, and 0. fringiUina, Curtis. 



