Report of Entomologist. 
365 
woods barefooted soon get their feet and legs thronged with them. 
They fasten themselves not only on man but also on animals, such as 
horses and horned cattle, which they frequently kill by fixing them¬ 
selves in such very great numbers on their bodies, from which they 
suck the blood. They never inhabit the meadows or cultivated fields, 
or cleared lands, but always live where trees are growing. They 
pierce the skin in such a subtile manner that the person attacked does 
not at first notice their puncture, and only perceives it when they 
have penetrated so far that half their body is found sunk into the flesh ; 
it is then that he feels at first a strong itching, and afterward a very 
severe pain at the place of the puncture, where a hard swelling occurs, 
the size of a pea or larger. It is then very difficult to get rid of the 
tick, for in endeavoring to draw it out it breaks asunder rather than to 
let go its hold, so that the head and trunk remain in the sore, soon 
producing an inflammation, followed by a suppuration, whereby the 
sore is frequently made deep and dangerous, and is accompanied with 
a most intolerable itching. It is, therefore, by cutting the flesh all 
around it that we must try to withdraw the tick entire from the spot 
where it is lodged. Or it is well to make use of a small pair of 
tweezers to draw it out, as M. Kalm states he had done with success. 
But the tick clings so strongly that in this operation one often tears 
out also a portion of the skin. M. Kalm states that he had seen 
horses which had the under side of their bodies and other parts so 
covered with these ticks, that the point of a knife could scarcely be 
introduced between them, and from being continually sucked by 
these cursed parasites deeply sunk into their flesh, the animals become 
so enfeebled, and are tormented so grievously that they eventually 
succumb and die in great misery. 
Various authors have spoken of these ticks, and there has been 
some confusion respecting them, several distinct species of this 
country and South America having probably been included under the 
name Americanus. But the brief characters given by Linnaeus, 
derived from the specimens obtained in this country by Kalm, make 
it sufficiently clear to what species this name rightfully pertains. lie 
defines the Americanus as being obovate, reddish, with the scutel 
and knees whitish. It is very evidently the common wood tick of this 
country to which this description points. 
The wood tick in its natural state, and not at all distended with blood, is flat as the 
common bed bug, to which it has a resemblance. It is almost circular, being little 
longer than wide, and is scarcely wider forward of the middle, or egg-shaped, with 
the pointed end backward, the form technically termed obovate. Specimens are 
