134 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



or less bent and folded, and suddenly narrows at the end, 

 terminating in a small point. The genital orifice is near tlie 

 anterior fourth of the body, where the caudal bursa of the 

 male is attached and conceals it. The male is only one-eighth 

 or one-seventh of an inch long and very slender ; the caudal 

 bursa is simple, sucker-like, with an entire margin, strength- 

 ened by about ten rays ; the penis consists of two very small, 

 cylindrical spicules, about gis of an inch long. The eggs are 

 oval, about sio of ^^ inch long. The embryos develop while 

 the eggs are still in the oviducts and uterine tubes, and the 

 eggs or young probably escape by a rupture of the integument 

 of the body of the female. 



Tlie history of the young worms, after they are expelled 

 from the windpipes of the birds, is not yet known, however. 

 Possibly they may enter the bodies of insects to pass their 

 larval state, but it is more probable that they bury themselves 

 in the surface of the soil or other moist places, and are thus 

 picked up directly by the birds and gain admittance to the 

 windpipe by their own active motions. 



Symptoms. 



The disease commonly known as " the gapes" is caused 

 solely by the presence of numbers of these worms in the wind- 

 pipe, which thus becomes so filled up as to render respiration 

 difficult, and if in considerable numbers, by their growth the 

 obstruction becomes complete, and death results from suffoca- 

 tion. Young chickens, thus attacked, seldom recover without 

 special treatment for the removal of the worms. Chickens 

 only three or four days old often show, symptoms of the dis- 

 ease by opening wide their mouth and gasping for breath, and 

 attempting to swallow. They also frequently sneeze. As the 

 disease grows worse these symptoms become more marked ; 

 they continually gasp and struggle for breath, grow weak and 

 dispirited, and finally droop and die. In fatal cases, one or 

 two dozen of these worms are often found in the windpipe, 

 completely filling it up. 



Hemedies. 



The worms may be removed by a feather from which the 

 web has been stripped, except a small portion near the tip. 



