ON A NEW GENUS OF BIRD-CESTODES. 139 



On a NEW GENUS of BIRD-CESTODES. 



By T. Harvey Johnston, m.a., b. sc, Assistant Government 



Microbiologist. 



(From the Bureau of Microbiology, Sydney, N.S.W.) 



[With Plate VIII.] 



[Read before the Royal Society of N. 8. Wales, September 1, 1909.'] 



In May 1894, Professor J. P. Hill collected some entozoa 

 from birds in the Jervis Bay district, amongst them being 

 a single specimen of a cestode taken from the intestine of 

 a bird which he has indicated as a "Jaby, a bird like a 

 crane." Mr. S. J. Johnston, b.a., b. so., to whom Dr. Hill 

 gave the specimen informed me that the bird in question 

 was very probably the Jabiru, Xenorhynchus asiaticus, 

 Lath. This is the only Australian representative of the 

 family Ciconiidce which includes the Storks. It occurs 

 on the Clarence River, (N. S. Wales), in Queensland, in 

 Northern Territory, and in North-west Australia, its occur- 

 rence as far south as Jervis Bay being rather unusual. 



Unfortunately there was only a single, unstained, mounted 

 specimen, but it possessed such striking characters that I 

 ventured to strip it carefully and then stain it, using 

 haematoxylin after having failed to colour it with borax 

 carmine. I was not able, therefore, to make any sections. 



The entire strobila is very small, consisting of a com- 

 paratively prominent scolex and some fifty-four segments 

 which together only reach a length of about sixteen milli- 

 metres. 



Scolex :— When examined in face view, the scolex appears 

 to be roughly rhomboidal with the posterior corner truncate 

 (Plate 8, fig. 2). Its length from the apex to the first 



