TICKS. 189 



CASE perfectly free from ticks, and after a few hours' hunting or rambling 

 come home with a quantity upon them ; that cattle and horses 

 combed and curried and sent out to grass clean are soon loaded 

 with them ; and that man himself, especially in haytime, is often 

 seriously annoyed by them. So far then as regards our British 

 species, it is impossible to suppose that they are bred on the 

 creature on which they are found. 



It is to be noted, however, that a good many exotic species 

 show indications of being limited to one animal, and even of 

 passing their lives upon them : some of these have been taken na 

 where else but from between the scales of various serpents from 

 warm climates, such as the python, the boa constrictor, etc., living: 

 (or dying) in captivity in menageries, etc. These of course have 

 come with them from their native countries j but none of them 

 have as yet been found on any other animal from these countries — - 

 an exception which loses some of its force when we remember 

 that no.animal is so helpless and powerless to get rid of ticks as a. 

 serpent, especially when they once get between its scales. It 

 may be that, nevertheless, this section has some special habit 

 adapting them for attachment to scaley reptiles. They are all of 

 a flat circular type, admirably adapted for getting between the 

 scales, and in their very colour they imitate the colours of the 

 serpents on which they live. To be sure that colour is usually 

 that of tangled herbage, but other species of Ixodes have not this 

 combination of colouring. On these accounts we propose to 

 make a separate section for them under the name of Ophiodes ; 

 although, so far as we yet know, there are no other characters by 

 which to separate them. 



Another case in which it seems probable that ticks are truly 

 assigned to one class of animals, is where they are found on bats. 

 Kolenati has described some half dozen species as peculiar to them, 

 and it is very probable that they are so, for not only have they 

 been found nowhere else, but the most of them are distinguished 

 by a special character, namely, the possession of long and slender 



