Gapes and Worms of Poultry. 



!59 



stocking must be avoided, for it also tends to encourage 

 this vermiceous bronchitis. 



I should say that all breeds of poultry are alike subject to 

 these parasites, although I was not able to give the disease 

 to Indian Game so readily as to some other breeds, such as 

 Dorkings. 



Life History of the Gape Worm. 



The Gape Worm lives in the trachea and upper part of the 

 bronchi. Male and female are nearly always found per- 

 manently in copula. In colour the worm is red, sometimes 

 bright blood red, at others of a brick-dust red. The female 

 varies very much in length, some mature females only being 

 10 mm. long, others nearly 20 mm. The male may reach as 

 much as 6 mm., but more usually it varies from 2 to 4 mm. 

 The body of the female is cylindrical and the head flattened 

 in front, the mouth being a circular cup-shaped depression 

 surrounded by a circular capsule. At the base of ihis 

 capsule are six: sharp-boring processes around the entrance 

 to the oesophagus. When nearly mature the worm loses its 

 smooth cylindrical form and becomes much swollen in 

 various places by the groups of eggs. 



The small red male is firmly united to the vulva of the 

 female, which is towards her head end, by the swollen caudal 

 pouch, which holds the worm on like a sucker. 



As many as twenty of these copulating individuals may be 

 found together in one chirck, anchored on to the tracheal 

 mucous membrane, and surrounded by a frothy mucus. 

 When these worms are sexually mature they are expecto- 

 rated by the bird during one of those wheezing coughs so 

 characteristic of the disease. The ova are unable to escape 

 from the female body owing to the male being permanently 

 attached to her vulva ; they make their exit, as a rule, 

 through a slit in the body-wall, caused by the skin bursting 

 from cadaveric decay. These eggs are very minute, 

 being only ^oth of an inch in length. They are ellipsoidal 

 in shape, and have a distinct lid or operculum at one end, 

 through which the white embryo worm escapes. The eggs 

 lie about upon the ground, and develop rapidly around 

 water-troughs and in the water. These eggs I have found, 



