1893.] ME. A. D. MICHAEL OX THE GENTS IXODES, 177 



beard is short, but the hair on the lieiicl and between the horns is 

 tliick. There are in the Museum, besides the perfect animal, t\\() 

 imperfect skulls; in one of them the whole forehead and con- 

 spicuous frontal bones are missing, and in the other the lower 

 jaw is absent. In the beginning of 1S73 a Bison-calf was sent 

 alixe from the Caucasus to the Zoological Garden at Moscow, but 

 it soon died. There are also reports of other cases of the capture 

 of Bisons, upon \\"hich I can give you no certain particulars ; 

 but I have heard that the celebrated hunter Mr. St. George 

 Littledale killed a Bison hi 1887 wliilst on a hunting expedition, 

 in summer, in the above mcntioned-district, in piu'suit of C'apra 

 caucasica^. 



February 28, 1893. 



Sir AViELiAM II. Feoaver, K.C.B., LL.D., F.E.S., President, in 

 the Chair. 



Mr. A. D. Michael, F.Z.S., exhibited specimens of a Tick of the 

 genus Lvodcs, kuo\AU locally as the " St. Kitt's "" or " Gold Tick," 

 received from ]\Ii'. C. A. Barber, of the Agricultural Department, 

 Antigua. These Ticks had become a serious pest in the Leeward 

 Islands, and there was a tradition there that they had been intro- 

 duced about 30 years ago h'om St. Kitt's along with some Senegal 

 Cattle. They were unknown in the Leeward Islands up to that 

 date, and were now unknown in St. Kitt's. The specimens had 

 been forwarded to Mr. Michael in order to ascertain whether the 

 species could be identihed, and, if so, whether there was any reason 

 to suppose that it was of African origiu. Mr, Michael observed 

 that this species was a very well-marked and unmistakable one, 

 described in 184:4 by C. L. Koch, of Kegensburg, from a male speci- 

 men received from Senegal. Koch had named it AnMyomma 

 venastum, stating that it was one of the most beautiful of all 

 the Ticks. According to modern classification it \A-ould be called 

 Hi/cdo)iiina vemistum. 



An adult female which Mr. Barber had kept in confinement had 

 laid over 20,000 eggs, most of which were hatched; and Prof. 

 Leidy, in America, had foiuid that adult female Ticks sometimes 

 weighed more than a hundred times as much \\hen fully fed than 

 when fasting. 



The following extract from a letter from M. A. Milne- Edwards, 

 F.M.Z.S., to Mr. Sclater, dated Museum d'llistoire Xaturelle, 

 Feb. 18, 1893, was read :— 



" Vous ave/, dccrit en 1880", sous le nom de Lemur nu/crriiiia.-^. 



' [Two fine specimcus (J and $) of the Caucasian Bison, ))ro.sonluil by Mr. 

 Littledale, are (o be seen luouiitcd in the gnlleryol' the British Museum. —Ed.] 



* [See P. Z. S. 188<J, )). 4.")!. Tlic speciiueii in (iiic.stion. purchased Nov..'), 

 1878, died June 18, 1882. A similar specimen, received Oct. 10, 1883, died 

 April 4, 1885. Both specimens were sent to M. Milne-iid wards for exami- 

 nation. — Ed.] 



Pttoc. ZooL. Soc— 1893, No. XII. 12 



