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Show 1893.] MR. A. D. MICHAEL ON THE GENUS IXODES. 177 beard is short, but the hair on the head and between the horns is thick. There are in the Museum, besides the perfect animal, two imperfect skulls; in one of them the whole forehead and conspicuous frontal bones are missing, and in the other the lower jaw is absent. In the beginning of 1873 a Bison-calf was sent alive from the Caucasus to the Zoological Garden at Moscow, but it soon died. There are also reports of other cases of the capture of Bisons, upon which I can give you no certain particulars ; but I have heard that the celebrated hunter Mr. St. George Littledale killed a Bison in 1887 whilst on a hunting expedition, in summer, in the above mentioned-district, in pursuit of Capra caucasica1. February 28, 1893. Sir WILLIAM H. FLOWER, K.C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. Mr. A. D. Michael, F.Z.S., exhibited specimens of a Tick of the genus Ixodes, known locally as the " St. Kitt's " or " Gold Tick," received from Mr. C. A. Barber, of the Agricultural Department, Antigua. These Ticks had become a serious pest in the Leeward Islands, and there was a tradition there that they had been introduced about 30 years ago from St. Kitt's along with some Senegal Cattle. They were unknown in the Leeward Islands up to that date, and were now unknown in St. Kitt's. The specimens had been forwarded to Mr. Michael in order to ascertain whether tbe species could be identified, and, if so, whether there was any reason to suppose that it was of African origiu. Mr. Michael observed that this species wras a very well-marked and unmistakable one, described in 1814 by C. L. Koch, of Regensburg, from a male specimen received from Senegal. Koch had named it Amblyomma venmtum, stating that it was one of the most beautiful of all the Ticks. According to modern classification it would be called Hyalomma venustum. A n adult female which Mr. Barber had kept in confinement had laid over 20,000 eggs, most of which were hatched ; aud Prof. Leidy, in America, had found that adult female Ticks sometimes weighed more than a hundred times as much when fully fed than when fasting. The following extract from a letter from M. A. Milne-Edwards, F.M.Z.S., to Mr. Sclater, dated Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, Feb. 18, 1893, was read :- " Vous avez decrit en 1880 2, sous le n o m de Lemur nigerrimus. 1 [Two fine specimens (o* and 5 ) of the Caucasian Bison, presented by Mr. Littledale, are to be seen mounted in the gallery of the British Museum.-ED.] 2 [See P. Z. S. 1880, p. 451. Tbe specimen in question, purchased Nov. 5, 1878, died June 18, 1882. A similar specimen, received Oct. 10, 1883, died April 4, 1885. Both specimens were sent to M . Milne-Edwards for examination.- ED.] PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1893, No. XII. 12 |