190 INSECTS AFFECTING DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
the mites, they may be attacked with the assurance that eggs and 
newly-hatched young are not developing in-some out-of-the-way corner. 
Moreover, the observations made on the length of time required for 
the hatching of the eggs indicate that they require a number of days 
at least, so that in repetition of treatments intended to kill individ- 
uals hatched since a former treatment a period of ten days to two 
weeks may be counted on as probably short enough. 
Even were we able to keep the eggs under suitable conditions and 
determine its exact period of incubation for all the species, we would 
not know that this would hold for all times of the year, nor could we 
assume results as to the number of eggs laid by one female and length 
of life of the mature louse to be uniform under all conditions. For 
practical purposes, therefore, it will be best to work on the facts already 
known, using, where possible, measures that will destroy eggs attached 
to hairs or feathers as well as the lice, and to discriminate between the 
lice and the mites or ticks which breed away from the fowls, and must 
therefore be fought with a little different principle in mind, though 
often the same measures may be adopted for both. 
It should always be borne in mind that lice must grow from eggs 
laid by the adult louse, and can never originate from filth or other 
matter. Chickens hatched in an incubator should be absolutely free 
from lice and remain so until brought in contact with a lousy hen or 
put in a lousy house. 
The effect of these lice may be less important than the suctorial lice 
or the sucking ticks or mites; but judging from the serious results fol- 
lowing the efforts of the animals to rid themselves, and from the known 
irritation due to anything crawling among the hairs or feathers, it can 
not be doubted that they cause much annoyance and inconvenience to 
the creatures that become their involuntary supporters. 
A writer in the Poultry World gives the following statement as to 
the symptoms of lice in fowls: 
Bowel disease in summer is a sign of lice; the sleepy disease, in which the chicks 
are sleepy or drowsy, is a sign; refusal to eat; puny-looking body and slow growth; 
sudden deaths; gradual wasting away; constant crying; loss of feathers on the head, 
and other symptoms that appear surprising or remarkable. Even in the cleanest of 
houses, when not a sign of lice can be seen, look on the chick for the large lice. Not 
only on the chicks, but the large body lice are nearly alwayson the adults. <A chick 
will never get lousy unless the old fowls are near, and that is why brooder chicks 
grow faster than those under hens. The large lice will kill ducks suddenly. They 
kill nearly all the young turkeys that die. Whenever you notice a sick fowl dust- 
ing itself look for lice. No doubt a majority of our readers fully understand how 
to get rid of lice, but the fact is that they will not believe that lice are present, 
and ascribe the results of the work of lice to some disease, thus doctoring the birds 
unnecessarily. First, we wish to say that while you may easily discover myriads — 
of little red mites in the poultry house, yet the real enemy is the large gray body 
louse which works on the heads, necks, and vents, and which never leaves the birds. 
To find this louse a very close search must be made, as he lurks down on the skin, at 
the base of the feathers, and hides from view. A single one of these voracious fel- 
lows on the head or throat of a young chick will sometimes cause the chick to dreop 
and die, 
