35 
in our therapeusis and attempts at determination of life 
cycle. As a result of our work we listed twenty birds 
which we had detected and isolated. 
During the past year the work has been continued 
along the same lines. Further work has been done to- 
ward curing birds already infested, but it has been un- 
availing. We have found nothing new about the life 
history. We have found, however, that our technique 
is so exact as to detect a parrot harboring one gravid 
female worm. The twenty verminous birds mentioned 
above have been kept in isolation, some in an open out- 
door cage. Several were used for experimental pur- 
poses. Of these, fifteen have died.* Spiroptera incerta 
were found in all fifteen at autopsy. Mexican Conure 
(2599) showed one gravid female and two males. On 
February 28th, 1913, there were five infested birds in 
isolation, as follows: — 
Ring-necked Parrakeet, 9 (No. 15), detected 1/5/12. 
Ring-necked Parrakeet, (No. 53), detected 1/26/12. 
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (No. 62), detected 1/27/12. 
Brown-fronted Macaw (Nc. 85), detected 2/2/12. 
Blue-fronted Amazon (No. 116), detected 2/21/12. 
The parrot house is in excellent condition. In last 
year's report note was made that it had been disinfected; 
that no new birds were passed to it without being exam- 
ined for spiroptera; and that every previous inhabitant 
had been tested and found free from parasitic eggs be- 
fore being passed back to it. As a result of this not a 
single parrot has come to autopsy from the parrot house 
showing spiroptera. The rate of mortality has de- 
creased. 
*No conclusions can be made from this rate of mortality because the birds 
were subjected to new and unusual conditions. These five birds have been 
infested for more than a year. This confirms our impression of last year that 
the worm does not always kill quickly. The blue-fronted amazon passes 
enormous numbers of ova. This shows how much damage could have been 
done in years past by a single heavily-infested bird in disseminating the dis- 
ease. 
