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GAPES 



Gapes causes so much mortality among 

 young chickens that you should be pre- 

 pared to fight the pest as soon as symptoms 

 of its presence are observed. Gapes is not 

 a disease, as many people imagine, but a 

 parasite worm, which is supposed to exist 

 only on ground on which birds have been 

 distributing droppings for more than one 

 season. Game preserves where quail, pheas- 

 ants, or grouse are bred extensively will 

 occasionally have epidemics of this scourge 

 that will sweep off hundreds of young birds. 

 The pest is about five-sixteenths of an inch 

 long, and as thick as a fine thread. It seems 

 certain from the information gathered about 

 it that after entering the windpipe of a chick 

 it produces young ; for bunches of little ones, 

 not more than three-sixteenths of an inch long, 

 have been found on making a post-mortem 

 examination, but only when a mature worm 

 was also present. At least, such is the 



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