DISEASES OF THE OX AND SHEBP. 435 



always carefully examined for bots every April, no doubt the 

 pest might be exterminated and kept out of this country. So 

 says Mr. Walker, and he is quite right in this, as in most of 

 his advice to agriculturists. This observer remarks that he has 

 seen the mischievous magpie, the sly jackdaw, and the harm- 

 less starling, in the spring-time, picking out the grub from the 

 backs of cows. 



The losses which result from the attacks of the insect are of 

 divers kinds. Among beasts which are fattening, the creature 

 appears at a time when flesh should be rapidly laid on, and it 

 causes terror and disturbance. For days together the oxen may 

 be well-nigh maddened, the pain produced when their thick skins 

 are being pierced by the fly being, no doubt, very severe, and of 

 a very irritating character. Even the strongest oxen seem to 

 know that they have little or no chance of coping with their 

 insignificant foe, whose approach is indicated by the dreaded 

 whir. Hence, in their wild attempts to escape, beasts not 

 infrequently meet with grave accidents. Breeding cows may 

 abort in consequence of the excitement undergone, and it is 

 indeed a painful sight to see the oxen with heads and tails 

 uplifted, nostrils expanded, scouring the fields in a frantic state. 

 It should be remembered, too, that animals which have brought 

 forth their young prematurely once, are very liable to abort 

 again and again, and also to transmit the same tendency or habit 

 to their companions. This is a well-known fact. 



When the egg of the warble has been deposited, and the 

 larva has been hatched, and is growing, a considerable amount 

 of irritation is set up, and the beast, in consequence thereof, 

 fattens more slowly. In the case of a milch-cow, the milk, after a 

 day of such excitement, is scanty and of poor quality, and it will 

 not keep long. Again, the damage to the hides on account of the 

 holes present in them is a source of serious loss. Even this 

 is not all, for the beef arouud each warbled spot is found to 

 be replaced by a yellowish jelly, which is caused by the beast 

 licking or rubbing itself with the purpose of getting rid of the 

 grub, as well as by the disturbance set up more directly by the 

 grub itself. These parts are cut off by the butcher, but there 

 is necessarily an appreciable loss, and the best parts of the 

 beast certainly do not look any the better for having been thus 

 treated. 



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