CHAP. XIV.] 



THE CAT'S HEXICOLOGY. 



511 



family of the order as that which contains the lice of men and apes. 

 It belongs to the family which contains the bird-lice. This parasite 

 of the cat is called Trichodcctes subrostrattcs* Its presence appears 

 to cause no evil or inconvenience to its host. 



The arachnidan external parasite is a sort of itch insect, named 

 Sarcoptes cati.\ It is so small as hardly to be visible to the naked 

 eye, but soon accumulates in vast numbers (to the cat's extreme 

 annoyance), especially on the head, ears, eyelids, and face, where it 

 causes swellings as well as baldness, beginning on the back of the 

 neck and head. The paws, also, are apt to be affected, as naturally 

 ensues from the infected animal's vain attempts to remove the 

 cause of distress. Catarrh, diarrhoea, distemper, consumption, and 

 insanity, are amongst the disorders from which cats are more or 

 less apt to suffer. 



* See Megnin's Parasites, p. 81 ; also 

 E. Piaget's fine work, Les Pediculines, 

 1880, p. 389, plate 31, fig. 9 ; and Henry 

 Denny's Monographia Anoplororum 



Britannia?, 1842, p. 189. 



f See P. Megniri's Parasites, 

 174 and 409. 



pp. 



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