214 SHEEP I BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



order to change into the pupal -form, they give rise to much 

 pain and violent sneezing and signs of discomfort. It is not 

 often that more than three bots are found lodged in one 

 sheep's head, although a dozen have been recorded. The 

 best way of seeing the bot is to examine sheep's heads in 

 April or early May by splitting them and searching among 

 the convolutions of the frontal sinuses. The bot often has 

 reached the cancellous or spongy recesses which are found 

 at the base of the horn these, as is well known, being in 

 communication with the air passages and higher convolutions 

 of the nasal cavity. When the worms are caught in the act 

 of expulsion from the nose, or are taken in that advanced 

 state from the cavities of a newly-killed sheep, they are very 

 restless, and are continually marching, or rather dragging, 

 themselves along. When placed upon the hand they find 

 their way to the divisions between the fingers, and, using the 

 points of their crochets, they endeavour to force them apart. 

 They soon get to the bottom of the loose earth or powder in 

 the insect box ; and if they are placed on the ground they 

 very speedily bury themselves in it, and are lost. 



The sheep bot fly is by no means easy to encounter with 

 preventive measures, but it is probable that the same odours 

 which drive away other flies might be equally distasteful to 

 the (Estrus ovis. 



GID STURDY TURNSICK. 



One of the most strange and not the least fatal malady 

 which affects our lamb flocks is that peculiar parasitic 

 affection known to shepherds and flock-masters as " gid," 

 " sturdy," or " turnsick." These names, like many others 

 employed in the nomenclature of disease, do not in any way 

 indicate the nature of the ailment, but are merely expressions 

 denoting a leading symptom in the disorder. Animals suffer- 

 ing from the disease are invariably giddy and turn round to 

 the right or to the left, or obstinately stand as if fixed to the 



