90 TICKS. 
and beast. They hide among bushes and other low plants, 
and holding themselves with some of their legs to blades of 
tall grasses, perhaps overhanging a path, they stretch out 
the other legs at full length tosdetect any animal that may 
happen to pass that way and to which they attach them- 
selves. Once fastened they select a suitable spot to insert 
their peculiar sucking-organs for the purpose of securing a 
feast of blood. All ticks are parasitic, infesting chiefly mam- 
mals and reptiles, but also birds. 
Their body is round or broadly oval, very flat, and pro- 
tected by an exceedingly tough integument. When swollen 
with blood their legs, which appeared very long in the hun- 
gry creature, are now almost useless, and the tick in this 
shape resembles very closely a castor-oil bean. When the 
brute has reached its acme of happiness, fullness, 1t with- 
draws the sucking-organs and drops to the ground. Fig. 55, 
plate IX, shows ticks of various sizes just removed froma dog. 
The mandibles (fig. 56) are covered with teeth and have 
terminal hooks; their maxille are small, notreaching beyond 
the beak, but bear a peculiar organ called 
the glossoid, which is also covered with 
hooks. Their slender, seven-jointed legs 
have two claws, and those of the six- 
: legged young mites, pads or suckers. These 
Fig.56. Mouthparts parasites crowd together in large numbers 
larged. Origina . when still young, clinging like the mature 
ticks to the tips ofleaves, with a number of their slender legs ex- 
tended, and wait for ‘‘something to turn up.’”’ When they 
succeed in reaching a victim they insert their glossoids and 
mandibles into the skin, to which they cling very firmly by 
means of the numerous hooks. This operation causes con- 
siderable irritation. If pulled out violently, these sucking- 
organs and the head remain in the skin and cause bad sores. 
To remove the entire animal, we have to apply oil; as soon 
as the parasite is touched with this substance it will with- 
draw the imbedded proboscis. Animals upon which large 
numbers of ticks are fastened can be relieved by means of 
kerosene-emulsion. 
The eggs of the ticks are deposited in large masses dur- 

