20 



Chicken Louse. 

 (iinniiciitex yiiins, female. 

 Ten times natural size. 



with great rapidity. It lias 

 been estimated that tlie third 

 o-eneratioii springing' from a 

 single individual may reach 

 the enonnous number of 125,- 

 000 within twelve weeks. 



While it is true that ne- 

 glect, dirt, fllth, etc., favor the 

 growtli and propagation of 

 lice, it should always be re- 

 membered that they cannot 

 appear in the poultry yard 

 unless they are brought in by 

 an infested fowl or by a cage 

 that a fowl has been in or 

 some other object that an in- 

 fested fo^^l lias been in contact with. I»ut foAvls are 

 interchanged so frecpiently and fowls of ditferenl 

 owners oome in contact in so many wayis at poultry 

 shows, in markets, etc., that it is not at all difficult foi- 

 a yard that was previously free from these parasites to 

 become infested when least suspected. 



These parasites occasion as much loss as any disease 

 that fowls are subject tO'. ^^'hile they alone do not 

 often kill birds, in many cases they so annoy them b\ 

 their constant irritation that they ]>revent sleep and 

 rest so thai fowls and especially young ones do not 

 grow and thi-ivc' as they should, and Ix'comc thin and 

 delicate. In this condition they do not produce eggs 

 noir are they good for food, and so long as they con- 

 tinue to remain badly infested with lice they are ab- 

 solutely unproductive and worthless. 



The conditions that are most favorable to the pro- 

 pagation of lice have already been mentioned briefly. 



