My interest having been aroused in Calliobdella lophii, I requested all my friends engaged upon the sea to keep a look-out for any leeches that might come to hand and especially for Calliobdella. Accordingly on 6. VIII. 1914 I received a specimen of a leech, taken near St Margaret's Hope towards the north-east of S. Ronaldsay in the Isles of Orkney, which as far as I can discover has never been described before, and which presents peculiar and interesting features not wholly dissimilar from those of Calliobdella. I propose to name the leech Ganymedes (or, if this name should be pre-occupied, Ganymedebdella) cratere.

Variability in the size and, in a lesser degree, the taxonomic features of male ticks, has arrested the attention of all who have had occasion to examine moderately large numbers of examples of the same species. In the case of the female tick, this variability, though doubtless coextensive with that of the male, is more or less obscured by the wide range of variation in size, depending upon the degree of engorgement; and, also, by the fact that in the female tick the taxonomic characters are, as a rule, less pronounced. The present note is only concerned with variability in the size of the male.

During the past summer numerous inquiries were received by Professor Elford, Dominion Poultry Husbandman, Experimental Farm, Ottawa, with regard to an apparently infectious disease appearing among ducks. So frequent and insistent were the appeals for aid in this connection that the co-operation of the Health of Animals Branch was requested. This resulted in an investigation being undertaken to ascertain the clinical nature of the disease; to demonstrate, if possible, the cause; and also institute measures for its prevention.

During the past year a considerable number of fishes has been forwarded to the Institute for examination. The great majority have been marine fishes obtained from Cleveland Bay, or from the reefs off Magnetic Island, but a few fresh-water fishes from local creeks have also been included.

In the course of dissecting a parakeet (Brotogerys tirica) sent to me for examination, I came across several large tapeworms of the genus Cotugnia in the duodenum. They did not agree with any of the species previously described and, upon closer examination, showed so many points of difference as to justify the creation of a new species for them. I propose the name Cotugnia brotogerys for this species.

No drug has been found which will influence the fatal course of East Coast Fever or retard the multiplication of Theileria parva in the blood of the affected cattle.

The drugs which were tried with negative results were Trypanblue, Congo red, Tryposafrol, Creosote and Oleum copaivae, Arsacetin, Soamin, “606,” Emetine hydrochloride, Mercury salicylate, Mercury succinimide, Quinine bihydrochloride and hydrochloride, Ethylhydrocupreine, Ammonium fluoride, Potassium iodide, Sodium salicylate, Calcium lactate, and Nuclein.

All of our animals died—18 treated and 3 untreated—and showed typical lesions at autopsy. They were all infected by means of ticks (Rhipicephalus appendiculatus) which had fed on infected cattle as larvae and nymphs and been placed on the experimental animals as nymphs and adults respectively.

The increase in the number of parasitized red blood corpuscles, but for slight irregularities, proceeds continuously night and day until the animal dies. We have not as yet observed a case ending in recovery.

The accompanying table gives a summary relating to each experimental animal (except XII): the number and kind of ticks which produced infection, the incubation period, the time when the parasites appeared in the peripheral blood, the time when the animals died, and the maximum percentage of parasitized blood corpuscles observed during the course of the disease. The days are all reckoned from Day 1 when the infective ticks were placed upon the cattle.

Through the courtesy of Dr Hans Gadow I have had the opportunity of examining a number of skins of five species of Apteryx in the collection of the Cambridge University Museum. From these I have collected at least three species of Mallophaga, which I find to belong to the genus Rallicola. These are described below, with some discussion of the genus to which they belong, and of the significance of the occurrence of that genus upon Apteryx, from which no Mallophaga have previously been recorded.

The respiratory system in Mallophaga has not hitherto been described in detail. Kellogg (1896, p. 45) gives the disposition of the main trunks in Tetrophthcdmus, together with a figure; Snodgrass (1899, p. 170) adds nothing to Kellogg's account; Fulmek (1907) dismisses the tracheal system with a paragraph; Shipley (1909) gives a detailed figure for Goniodes tetraonis which is neither complete nor altogether exact; and Mjöberg (1910), although devoting several pages of his morphological section to the respiratory system, is chiefly concerned with the occluding apparatus of the stigmata. He does, however, figure the main trunks in Eutrichophilus, and the occluding apparatus in Gyropus ovalis; and makes certain general statements which may be summarised as follows:

While engaged in experimental researches on the introduction of insect flagellates, belonging to the genera Herpetomonas and Crithidia, into vertebrates, we have recalled to mind some former observations of ours made in 1909. When examining the blood of mice artificially infected with the spirochaetes of relapsing fever in the Quick Laboratory, Cambridge, we observed flagellates in the peripheral blood of the mice. These flagellates, which were scanty, were studied in fresh preparations by us and drawings of the organism were made with the camera lucida. Some of these drawings are now reproduced, together with others made by us subsequently. The flagellates were also observed by Professor Nuttall and his laboratory assistant, Mr B. G. Clarke, and we were unanimously agreed that the flagellates belonged to the genus Herpetomonas, or Leptomonas as some have since preferred to call it. The significance of the presence of herpetomonads in the blood of mice was very puzzling at the time, and pressure of other work prevented the subject being followed up. During 1911 and 1912, these flagellate organisms have been seen by all of us, but they were always evanescent and could not be found in fixed and stained preparations. The parasites were seen on different occasions in three mice altogether.