54 Mites Injurious to Domestic Animals. 



becoming greatly distorted and covered with thick nodular spongy 

 crusts. The comb and neck may also be attacked. 



Crude petroleum should be applied to the feet, or they can be 

 dipped into the oil. Another method is to soak the feet of the fowl 

 in hot soapsuds, removing as much as possible of the infected scales, 

 etc., and then rub them with ointment containing sulphur or 6 per 

 cent, carbolic. Scaly-leg is highly contagious, and the fowls suffer- 

 ing from it should be isolated and their perches and runs disinfected. 



Depluming Itch of Poultry. Cnemidocoptes laevis, var. 

 gallinae (fig. 15), is the mite present in depluming itch, a complaint 

 chiefly characterised by the falling out of the feathers over more or 



FIG. 38. 



Glycyphagusdomesticus(p.ll), x 50. (After Michael.) 



less extended areas of the body. If a few feathers are plucked from 

 the back, top of wing, near the vent, breast, or thighs, the mite will 

 be found embedded in the tissue or scales at the base of the quill. 

 According to H. P. Wood, of the U.S. Bureau of Entomology : 

 " The damage to the plumage is.very evident. Infested fowls have 

 a ragged appearance, with a good many broken feathers or perhaps 

 bare spots. This appearance is more evident in the summer and fall 

 than it is soon after moulting. It is quite evident that any damage 

 done to plumage would be detrimental to show birds. We believe 

 also that more injury is done to poultry generally by this mite than 

 is commonly supposed. There seems to be some itching, which 

 may result in feather pulling, causing some hens to become quite 



