112 
NEUROPTERA. 
been obtained from birds belonging to species which occur in India are 
fourteen in number, and belong to the nine genera Docophorus , Nirmus , 
Goniocotes , Akidoproctus, Goniodes, Ornithobius , Lipeurus , Colpocepha- 
lum, Menopon and Trinotum. 
Fig. 44 shows the egg, a young stage, and the adult of the louse of 
one of the big Indian buzzards (Pernis cristatus), and indicates how 
Fig-. 44 —Egg, nymph and adult of a biting louse on an Indian buzzard 
(Pernis cristatus). Magnified. 
slight is the difference between the young and the full-grown parasite. 
The eggs are found firmly attached to the feathers of the bird. Fowls 
or other domesticated birds, if infested with lice, can be rid of them by 
carefully brushing any non-irritant vegetable oil (not paraffin or crude 
oil) on the skin and about the roots of the feathers. The oil stops up 
tho breathing-spiracles and suffocates the insects. This treatment is 
also effective for clearing fowls or other animals of ticks. (F. M. H.) 
Embiim]. 
Narrow delicate insects , the prothorax small , the wings , 
when present , with feiv veins. 
These little insects have an extremely characteristic appearance 
due to the elongate body, the short legs, the small abdominal cerci, and 
(in the males) especially the narrow, usually dark coloured, wings. 
They are black or dull-coloured, small and very delicate. The antennae 
are well developed, the mouthparts are of the biting type ; the pro thorax 
is small, the tarsi three-jointed, and there is, in the male, an asymmetry 
of the cerci. The insects are suggestive of* a primitive condition, 
