THE HAEMATOZOA OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 429 



the centre was occupied by a large spherical pinkish body- 

 showing scattered chromatic granules. 



A further examination revealed the presence of other 

 forms of these bodies which seemed to link them up with 

 degenerated forms of red cells, in which the nuclei became 

 separated into spherical portions and gradually degenerated. 

 At first sight the bodies suggested a parasitic origin. 



Spores of a Mould mistaken for Parasites. 

 In the Second Report of the Wellcome Research Labora- 

 tories at Khartoum appears in a coloured plate (Plate XXI, 

 b.c.) a representation of elongated bodies supposed to have 

 been found in the blood of a guinea-fowl, and these are 

 referred to in the text (p. 196). The bodies are elongated 

 and divided into four or more parts by partitions. On several 

 occasions we have noted bodies identical with these while 

 examining dried films of blood from birds, notably so in 

 that of a Roller Bird (Eurystomus paciftcus, M. 381). 

 Their true nature was not realized until many months 

 afterwards, when one of us was examining a small specimen 

 of liquid blood forwarded in a bottle from a horse. This had 

 become slightly mouldy, and on staining films, bodies indis- 

 tinguishable from those mentioned above were numerous. 

 The mould would seem to be a species of Fusisporium, a 

 not uncommon saprophyte, and finding the spores in dried 

 slides of blood may be easily accounted for either by their 

 entanglement in the blood from the surroundings when the 

 film was made or by the occurrence of mould in the sur- 

 roundings of the film while stowed away. 



Microfilariae from Australian Birds. 

 Filarial embryos have been detected in films from the 

 following additional birds : — (1) Phalacrocorax melano- 

 leucus ; (2) Accipiter cirrhocephalus ; (3) Glossopsittacus 

 pusillus; (4) Podargus strigoides; (5) Eurystomus pacift- 

 cus; (Q)Psphodes crepitans; (7) Artamus leucogaster; (8) 



