DISEASES AFFECTING THE SKIN. 81 



The small red mite is perhaps the most common and 

 annoying, especially during the night, when it feasts 

 on its host by pricking the skin and filling itself with 

 blood, while during the day it is found in large num- 

 bers in cracks, crevices, etc., in the walls, roosts and 

 nests, or in the litter, if much of this is allowed to 

 accumulate under the roosts. 



Another very annoying variety is the large (some- 

 times called the gray head) louse. This variety is very 

 destructive to young fowls; a few may destroy a young 

 bird. Their presence is detected principally on the 

 head, and by their white nits at the base of the feath- 

 ers on the head and about the eyes. 



The long, slender louse is one of the most common 

 found on the fowl during the day, or when an examin- 

 ation is made; they are usually very plentiful about . 

 the vent, under the wings, along the belly, where 

 their nit3 and debris will be found collected about the 

 base of the feathers. This louse runs very rapidly and 

 will soon disappear; therefore, searching must be done 

 very carefully. 



Those that do not gnaw or bite the skin, but affect 

 the feathers, are characterized by the feathers appear- 

 ing dead and breaking off, and by their excreta collect- 

 ing about the shafts of the feathers. 



WHERE DO LICE COME FROM? 



The okl supposition that lice are spontaneously 

 developed in filth and litter should no longer be main- 

 tained; hov/ever, it is true that such unsanitary condi= 



