ECHINORHYNCHUS POMATOSTOMI, N.SP. Hi 



ECHINORHYNCHUS POMATOSTOMI, (N.Sp.) 



A SUBCUTANEOUS PARASITE op AUSTRALIAN 



BIRDS. 



By T. Harvey Johnston, m.a., d.sc, and J. Burton 



CLELAND, M.D., Ch.M. 



(From the Government Bureau of Microbiology, Sydney.) 



[Read before the Royal Society of N. 8. Wales, July 5, 1911.] 



In three species of Pomatorhinus and in three other Aus- 

 tralian birds which were associated in each case with 

 members of this genus, a number of larval individuals of a 

 species of Echinorhynchus was obtained by one of us from 

 three different portions of Australia, each separated from 

 the other by a distance of many hundred miles. As the 

 occurrence of larvae of this genus in vertebrates is rare, 

 and is so far unrecorded for Australian Birds, it seemed 

 to us advisable to describe this parasite as fully as the 

 material will allow. From its association in each case with 

 members of the genus Pomatostomns (Pomatorhinus), we 

 have given it the specific name of E. pomatostomi. The 

 following information as to the discovery of these parasites 

 may be interesting more especially to those ornithologists 

 who have facilities for examining fresh carcases of Aus- 

 tralian birds. 



In the latter part of the year 1907 one of us had an 

 opportunity of securing some birds midway between Port 

 Hedland and Marble Bar in North West Australia. On 

 one occasion Pomatostomus rubeculus, Gould, and Climac- 

 teris wellsi, Grant, were shot together in the same patch 

 of scrub on the banks of a dry water-course (the Shaw 

 River), together with a few other birds. On preparing the 

 skins later, a number of small white bodies like very small 



