262 GRAZING CATTLE -POISONS 



at the tip. The head is large, the wings brown, and the legs 

 black or pitchy, with lighter feet." 



The female possesses a long ovipositor, with which during 

 summer she most probably pierces the skin and plants an 

 egg, which "is oval and white, with a small brownish lump 

 at one end." Subcutaneous irritation begins in early winter. 

 The young warbles are placed with the head down and the 

 tail up in connection with breathing tubes, 

 which open on the surface of the skin. 

 They are easily destroyed, and the earlier 

 the better, by the application of some 

 liquid such as MacDougall's Dip or strong 

 salt brine, which will run down the tubes 

 and poison the inmates ; or the mouths of 

 the tubes may be closed up by some sort 



oF WTE of 8"*^ mat ial - If th * were largely 

 MAGGOT MAGNI- practised, the injury resulting from the flies 

 existing in such enormous numbers might 

 be undone in a few years. Mercurial ointment, unless applied 

 with great caution, and in the smallest possible quantity, 

 is liable to produce poisoning, through the animals licking 

 it off. The flies can be prevented from striking by applica- 

 tions, rubbed in once a week along each side of the backbone 

 (the favourite seat of attack), of such things as train oil, or a 

 mixture of linseed oil, sulphur, and carbolic acid. Paraffin oil 

 or kerosene is useful only for a short time, as the smell goes 

 off rapidly. As the weather becomes warm, the maggots 

 force themselves out from beneath the skin and drop to the 

 ground, where they assume the chrysalis form, of a dark 

 colour. The fly appears in about three or four weeks if the 

 season is warm and favourable. If a united and strenuous 

 effort were made by owners of cattle in all parts of the 

 country to get rid of this painful and irritating pest, it might, 

 though with some difficulty, be as entirely stamped out as 

 pleuro-pneumonia or foot-and-mouth disease. 1 



1 See Chapter XIV. of the Autobiography and Correspondence of 

 Eleanor Ormerod, LL.D. (John Murray), for an account of the splendid 

 work of warble destruction done by the boys of Aldersey School in 

 Cheshire. 



