CHAPTER XVIII. 
PARASITES UPON POULTRY. 
lt is very common to speak of “‘ Hen-lice” as if there 
were but one kind of insect parasite upon our fowls. 
The fact is that there are at least five species of lice 
which, with several mites, ticks, and kindred creatures, 
bring up the number of poultry pests to a dozen or 
more. From the day the chick leaves the egg, to that 
on which it is prepared for market, it is subject to the 
attacks of one or more of these 
parasites. That they interfere 
with the comfort, and conse- 
quently the thrift of the birds, 
is evident, and to be a successful 
poultry-raiser one should know 
thoroughly the habits of these 
poultry enemies and the methods 
of getting rid of them. That 
some are wonderfully prolific is 
shown by feathers sent us by a 
.friend in New Hampshire, who 
writes: ‘‘They have something 
on the base, and about every 
feather in the ‘fluff’ is like FEATHER, 
these.” (See Fig. 79.) The engraving, of the natu- 
ral size, gives the appearance of the feathers. A 
magnifier showed the ‘‘something on the base” to be 
a dense mass of the eggs of a parasite, and it 1s safe to 
say that there were several hundreds in each cluster. A 
portion of the eggs had hatched, and we do not wonder 
that our friend wrote that the ‘ cockerel is very lousy.” 
Some of the creatures live only upon the feathers of the 
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