132 
Small Biters of the South. 
Portovelo, Zaruma, Ecuador, June 22.—Edi¬ 
tor Forest and Stream: Fleas are so common 
in tropical America that one who has to visit 
the habitations of the natives, or otherwise as¬ 
sociate with them—as does the physician and 
sanitarist—is almost daily the host of one or 
more of the long-distance jumpers. 
I wish to assist, if possible, in the education 
of mankind and as to how to avoid and how to 
destroy these annoying and very dangerous pests. 
That the flea is a nuisance to health is well 
known to some, and vaguely appreciated by 
many. That certain fleas communicate bubonic 
plague is now quite universally admitted, but 
that other infectious diseases, including ma¬ 
larial fevers, may gain admission to the human 
body through the same medium seems but lightly 
regarded, though urged by me for a number of 
years.* 
Whether on the score of health or merely of 
comfort, most civilized beings will admit the 
wisdom of avoiding fleas and of keeping them 
out of places of abode. How is this to be ac¬ 
complished? In most Northern latitudes it is 
comparatively easy, as the flea is there usually 
only an occasional or accidental visitor, while 
in tropical and semi-tropical regions it is an 
almost ever present and unsolved problem. In¬ 
secticides, per se, are almost useless. Quite re¬ 
cently one of the leading scientific periodicals of 
the United Statesf published a letter from a dis¬ 
tinguished entomologist in which two methods 
of trapping and driving away fleas were de¬ 
scribed and presented as having been found ef¬ 
ficient, by their respective exponents, in keeping 
down the pest in Eastern lands. Neither remedy 
is new and neither is possessed of material in¬ 
trinsic value. One is based upon the old-time 
fallacy which taught that fleas will always 
jump into an open flame; the other, while use¬ 
ful, owes its utility chiefly to the rudimentary 
principle of cleanliness which it embodies. Fleas 
glory in dust, dirt and rubbish, and as long as 
these remain to harbor them they appear im¬ 
mune to almost every known remedy. 
On the other hand, they will not long remain 
jm clean, smooth surfaces. In the East, as well 
as in the American tropics, matting of fibre and 
similar dust filters and retainers are largely used 
in places of abode, and engender multitudes of 
fleas. Even in Northern climates I have known 
instances where matting on floors has harbored 
fleas in most troublesome quantities for months, 
despite the persistent use of almost every 
known insecticide. A single room, having a 
matting of grass or straw fastened to the floor, 
or otherwise held down by furniture, etc., so that 
the dust which rapidly accumulates in its meshes 
and upon the floor beneath cannot be—or, at 
least, is not—carefully and promptly removed, 
is sufficient to keep an entire house literally 
alive with fleas. Soapsuds and many other 
things will hold fleas if they get into them, and 
as fleas are great wanderers, though ordinarily 
covering great distances only as passengers upon 
•In 1901, after special observations and investigations 
in Central America, in regard to the transmission of 
malarial fevers—which are very common in both Central 
and South America in mountainous districts absolutely 
free from anopheles and other blood-sucking mos¬ 
quitoes—I first called the attention of the medical pro¬ 
fession in an article published in the New York Medical 
Record, to the probability of fleas being active agents 
in the transmission of malarial poison. 
■('Science, Nov. 29, 1907. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[July 24, itjg 
man and animals, and are much of the time on 
the jump, some of them are quite sure to be 
caught in the traps of this sort, but not in 
quantity sufficient to make perceptible impres¬ 
sion on the general commuity. They greatly 
abhor water and fluids in general, because they 
tie up their legs, and kerosene will doubtless 
overcome them—if they are immersed in it a 
sufficient length of time. Fire will certainly 
burn them and water, even if it does not drown 
them, can be used to wash or flush them from 
their retreats, but it requires either a devastating 
conflagration or an overwhelming flood to effect 
the annihilation of a given colony—if these 
means alone are employed. 
The ordinary flame, or fire trap, for eradicat¬ 
ing fleas is as ridiculous as the asserted fire¬ 
proof propensity of the salamander. We have 
thoroughly tested it and found it decidedly 
wanting. During the winter of 1905-06, while 
on the United States Coast and Geodetic Sur¬ 
vey work in Southern Florida, I ran across a 
veritable hot-bed of fleas on the southwestern 
shore of Lake Okeechobee, in the edge of the 
Everglades. The place is known to the few alli¬ 
gator hunters and other trappers who invade 
that wilderness as Sugar Loaf Beach, and is one 
of the few places on the western border of the 
lake where a landing can be made and a camp 
set up, most of the western shore of this great 
lake merging into the vast expanse of saw-grass. 
During the previous winter, one trapper had 
made Sugar Loaf Beach headquarters and had 
put up a rough frame and thatched its roof and 
three of its four sides with palmettoes. This 
shelter was still standing and in fair condition 
upon my arrival there, and both the shack and 
the rough board bed frame which occupied one 
corner, as the saying goes, “looked good to me,” 
after over a month of living entirely in tent 
or aboard the small sailing craft in which I was 
traveling. So I forthwith took possession and 
directed the earth floor—which was littered with 
leaves, twigs, rags and other rubbish—cleared 
and the camp equipment moved in. But even 
while these preparations were going on I dis¬ 
covered that the shack already had other inhab¬ 
itants besides the ever-present mosquitoes and 
sand flies. “Build a fire on the floor of the 
shack and the fleas will all jump into it,” vol¬ 
unteered a Cracker helper, and this was done— 
not only for its possible effect in cremating fleas 
but also to smoke out a few hundred mosqui¬ 
toes. But the fire, although kept going either 
with vivid flame or as a smouldering smudge 
much of the time during the few days that I 
camped there was notably ineffective against 
either pest. Though at times the fire raged 
fiercely enough to drive us out by ita heat and 
threatened the destruction of the highly inflam¬ 
mable edifice, the fleas continued to annoy; and 
though, in vain search for respite from the 
mosquitoes I often sat to leeward of a smudge 
that blinded my eyes and induced a violent tem¬ 
porary coryza. 
The citronella oil, which had proved par¬ 
tially effective, had given out. I escaped the 
fleas ony hy keeping out of the shack, and 
only by taking to the boat and getting out upon 
the lake did I get away from the mosquitoes. 
Even at night there was no comfort in the 
shack, for the red bugs that crept into the 
flesh during the day's work in the bush began 
to gnaw and squirm as soon as one attempted to 
sleep, and the restlessness induced thereby 
it impossible to keep ensconsed under th<l 
mosquito bar, which latter was not infreqm 
torn from its fastenings and otherwise 
molished during the hours of attempted e 
I soon found that the hard floor of the >; 
open cock-pit, when the boat was anchored 
off shore, was more conducive to sleep the 
trapper’s couch, and that the open sky c 
spread out sail formed a canopy more air 
to the fickle goddess, Morpheus, than,! 
thatched roof of the lone cabin. 
To keep fleas out of houses possess^ 
smooth, hard floors, and plain untapestried / 
is easy. Prevent the accumulation of dustc 
and rubbish and the fleas will not ru: 
Avoid mattings and carpets that cannot 1 
moved and shaken daily. Sprinkle or wa 
floors daily with water—or water contr 
kerosene, creolin, or similar adjunct. Kei 
dogs, cats, rats and other vermin-carryin ! 
mals. If many who fondle, yet seldom r ; 
pet animals could know the flea-ridden, :ft 
dogs and forlorn cats of the tropics, that :a 
filth and disease broadcast, they would cei 
come to question the propriety of allowing 
animals the privilege of dining-room; 
sleeping apartments, to say the least. 
J. Hobart Egir 
A Tourist from Carolina. 
Delanson, N. Y., July 17.—Editor Fort 
Stream: One of my neighbors shot a crc 
laid the bird in his newly-planted corn f < 
a warning to the black marauders. A ijj 
two later while he was working in an adj.i 
field a long-winged bird descended on th: 
and proceeded to devour it. 
“Bring out your gun,” shouted the far:: 
a Norwegian who lived near. “Here’s ai 
eating my crow.” 
The Norwegian came out with his gun 
bird rose from the feast and alighted on ;i( 
post a long gun-shot away. Whe 
Norwegian fired and missed, the foolis 
rose and circled directly over the gunner’ h 
The second shot brought him lifeless * 
ground. 
On the following day I saw the bird; 
in the field near the scene of his last b < 
It was a stranger here and not beautiful. I 
and neck naked and black; the ruff of ft 
on the fewer neck and shoulders a shiny/1 
rest of plumage blackish, shading to c 
length about 25 inches; 5 feet 6 inchef 
tip to tip. I recognized the characterisl 
the bird was a vulture. 
According to the books the black vt 
northern breeding limit is North C;P 
while the turkey vulture is quite regulaU 
Princeton, N. J., and casual along the cu 
Maine, but the turkey vulture’s head ar 
are red. I suspected that the strange:; 
had blackened under the hot sun, ft 
Norwegian declared that when he killed 
was just same black as a crow.” 
Does the black vulture ever wander c 
north? Was the bird a visitor from Jen: 
a tourist from Carolina? 
* Will W. Chris - 
‘[The black vulture is found usually 5 
North as Maine and North Dakota.— 
