THE TICKS SPOIL LEATHER. 



After this second change some of the ticks had 

 become brown male ticks. The others had become 

 egg-laying ticks. The egg-laying ticks at first were 

 not much larger than the brown male ticks. The 

 brown male ticks did not grow any more. But the 

 egg-laying ticks grew larger and larger, and the 

 larger they grew, the more blood they sucked from the 

 cow. 



They made bigger wells in the hide so that they 

 could get blood faster. 



Each of these wells or tick bites makes a sore spot 

 and a mark in the leather made from the hide. (See 

 illustrations on page 10.) 



The egg-laying ticks got so big and fat that they 

 looked like tinv blood sausages, or little balloons. 

 Each tick kept itself full of blood all the time. If 

 you had crushed one of them, you would have seen 

 the blood in it. The male ticks stay brown, but the 

 egg-laying ticks, when they are fat, are olive-green. 



The big, olive-green, egg-laying ticks look like this: 



Full-grown eg<>;-layini>; tick 

 under magnifying glass. 



The ticks sucked so much blood that the cow 

 became thin and scrawny. The cow was making 

 blood out of feed as fast as she could. But she could 

 not make blood fast enough to feed the ticks and at 

 the same time keep well and strong and fat herself. 



8227°— 17 2 



