SarcoptidcB Cavicola. 153 



white, granular, glutinous faeces which matted the feathers 

 around the anus. The bird was dull, drooping and feeble, in 

 spite of a good appetite, or even considerable remaining fat ; 

 the plumage was dull, lustreless, dirty and draggled. Driving 

 caused dyspncea and gaping. The comb and wattles were pale 

 and anaemic in the impoverished birds and dark blue or cyanotic 

 in the plethoric or well conditioned. 



Duration. The course of the disease varies, some dying early 

 and suddenly of asphyxia, while others survived three or four 

 days or weeks, or even months, according to the number of acari, 

 the strength of the patient or the organs attacked. 



Prevention. Treatment. The disease is difficult to deal with 

 because apparently sound birds may harbor the acarus, and spread 

 it to the whole flock while themselves unsuspected. Hence it is 

 usually desirable to sacrifice the entire flock, maintaining the 

 breed by setting their eggs in an incubator or under a healthy 

 hen from outside, and raising the chicks in poultry houses and 

 yards that are above suspicion of contamination. The carcases 

 should be burned or boiled, and the houses and runs thoroughly 

 cleansed, drenched with boiling water, and then thoroughly 

 sprayed with corrosive sublimate solution (1:500), or other 

 insecticide. They should be left unoccupied for at least three 

 months, or more safely (considering the tenacity of life of many 

 larval acari) until the following season. The hen manure, litter 

 and sweepings of the houses and yards must be burned or dis- 

 posed of safely in places to which no other birds have access. 



For the treatment of the diseased birds nothing satisfactory has 

 been proposed. Sprinkling of the floor or smearing of the 

 feathers of the neck with camphor, asafcEtida, napthalin or other 

 volatile insecticide may be tried, or one of these agents in solution 

 may be cautiously injected into the larynx and trachea and re- 

 peated daily or every second day. This can only be hoped to 

 affect the acari in the air-passages and sacs, and the bird must be 

 still treated as dangerous and excluded from sound flocks, houses 

 and runs. 



