2 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGI3AL SOCIETY. 



Iii dealing with the natural enemies of cattle-ticks 

 (Ixodoiclea), special reference was made to the dietary of 

 the Horn-billed Cuckoo (Croto-phaga ani), a bird which 

 appeared to exercise little or no choice in the selection of 

 its food, nauseous plant-bugs being eaten apparently 

 just as freely as those insects which belong to the 

 so-called edible group. In a series of post-mortem 

 examinations many ticks were found in the contents of 

 the stomachs ; also many examples of the green 

 "stink-bug" (Loxa flavicollis). This bug, whose odour 

 is horribly offensive, does not possess any warning 

 coloration; but being of a uniformly green colour is 

 highly protected and difficult to discover when resting 

 among the leafy branches of a tree or shrub. The amount 

 of odoriferous matter contained in the stomachs of the 

 birds found to contain the remains of this bug were so 

 offensive as to render the operation of dissection 

 positively unbearable, and the foetid odour was with 

 difficulty removed from the hands of the operator. The 

 common "cotton stainer" (Dysdercus sp.), an hemipteron 

 with a markedly warning orange-red colour pattern ; 

 nests of the paper-building wasp (Polistes crinita) ; huge 

 black "witch moths" (Erebus argarista), measuring 

 nearly six inches in the wing expanse ; GeodephagQns 

 and Chrysomelid beetles; molluscs and berries; all of 

 these were found to have been eaten by this bird. 



In referring to the work of the Expedition, the 

 President said that he was happy to be able to state that 

 the practical experiments which he had conducted 

 indicated that a most effective means of controlling 

 cattle-ticks had been devised, and that highly satisfactory 

 reports had been received from the Government in 

 confirmation of this statement. 



