154 FERN OWL. 



LETTER XLVII. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, 1771- 

 DEAR SIR, 



ON the twelfth of July, I had a fair opportunity 

 of contemplating the motions of the caprimulgus, or 

 fern-owl, as it was playing- round a large oak that 

 swarmed with scarabcei solstitiales , or fern-chafers*. 

 The powers of its wing were wonderful, exceeding, 

 if possible, the various evolutions and quick turns 

 of the swallow genus. But the circumstance that 

 pleased me most was, that I saw it distinctly more 

 than once put out its short leg when on the wing, 

 and, by a bend of the head, deliver somewhat into 

 its mouth. If it takes any part of its prey with its 

 foot, as I have now the greatest reason to suppose 

 it does these chafers, I no longer wonder at the use 

 of its middle toe, which is curiously furnished with 

 a serrated claw. 



Swallows and martins, the bulk of them, I mean, 

 have forsaken us sooner this year than usual ; for, 



* Several species of phalana live upon the oak; but one, the 

 phaltena viridana of Donovan's British Insects, and which also 

 appears to have been known to Mr. White, does considerable 

 damage among the young oak copses in Scotland, while in the 

 larva state. In the summer of 1828, and again in that of 1829, 

 I met with this species in immense profusion about Inverary, 

 and near Loch Katrine, where many hundred acres of oak copse 

 appeared as in early spring, with the leaves much destroyed by 

 this insect. This must undoubtedly check the growth, and, of 

 course, when so extensively dispersed, be of some consequence 

 to the proprietor. Though White describes it as phal&na quercus, 

 it is undoubtedly this species which he means. W. J. 



