Eggs are laid in both places, but not many, showing that the groin and the axilla are adopted only reluctantly and for lack of a better spot.
With an unplucked bird, also hooded, the same experiment failed: the feathers prevent the Fly from slipping into those deep places.

Let us add, in conclusion, that, on a skinned bird, or simply on a piece of butcher's meat, the laying is effected on any part whatever, provided that it be dark.

The gloomiest corners are the favourite ones.
It follows from all this that, to lay her eggs, the Bluebottle picks out either naked wounds or else the mucous membranes of the mouth or eyes, which are not protected by a skin of any thickness.

She also needs darkness.
The perfect efficiency of the paper bag, which prevents the inroads of the worms through the eye-sockets or the beak, suggests a similar experiment with the whole bird.

It is a matter of wrapping the body in a sort of artificial skin which will be as discouraging to the Fly as the natural skin.