184 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 
or less bent and folded, and suddenly narrows at the end, 
terminating in a small point. The genital orifice is near the 
anterior fourth of the body, where the caudal bursa of the 
male is attached and concealsit. 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 jue about $5 of an inchlong. The eggs are 
oval, about zy of an inch long. The embryos develop while 
the eggs are still in the oviducts and uterine tubes, and the 
eges or young probably escape by a rupture of the integument 
of the body of the female. 
The 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. : 
Remedies. 
The worms may be removed by a feather from which the 
web has been stripped, except a small portion near the tip. 
Digitized by Microsoft® 
