REMEDIES AGAINST FEATHER-LICE. 117 
will be given and figured, since practical people, for whom 
the report is written, do not greatly care whether they kill 
with Persian insect-powder, a Goniocotes, Goniodes, or Meno- 
pon, providing that the insect dies a sudden death. 
The remedies we can apply against feather-lice infesting 
birds are not numerous, nor can they be applied as in treat- 
ing hairy animals. An ounce of prevention in this case is 
worth more than a pound of cure. All birds, be they fowls 
or caged pets, useful or ornamental, should have access 
to a dust-pan filled with sifted coal-ashes. Whoever has 
watched birds enjoying a bath of this kind knows how use- 
ful it must be, and how beneficial and soothing, otherwise 
they would not repeat it as often as they do. If birds are 
infested with lice they seem to require such a dusting, which 
is evidently nature’s remedy against all vermin of this 
character, and by means of which they dislodge them. The 
frequent use of Persian or Dalmatian insect-powder (/yre- 
thrum) is the very best remedy we possess for the purpose of 
killing these parasites. In buying this powder, we should 
make certain that it is fresh, as old powder becomes almost 
worthless. The active principle of Pyrethrum is an essential 
or etherial oil, which is volatile; if the powder is, therefore, 
not kept in a tight vessel nothing remains ‘“‘but the dry sub- 
stance, the spirit is gone.’’ This powder, or the better one 
produced in California and sold under the name of Buhach, 
should be dusted between the feathers of the infested fowls. 
Their nests should also be treated in the same way. 
Thorough fumigation of the hen-house with sulphur dur- 
ing the absence of the chickens is also an excellent rule, 
though the very great majority ofbiting-lice are away with the 
birds and not in the roosts. But the fumes of sulphur de- 
stroy at the same time also numerous other insects that 1n- 
vade the hen-houses, as well as vegetable parasites. For 
this very reason the inside of the hen-house should be white- 
washed from time to time, and a thorough spraying with 
kerosene should not be omitted. Sand-baths, in which the 
sand is slightly moistened with kerosene oil, has also many 
advantages. If hen-houses were built in such a manner that 
