XXII.] OF SELBORNE. 71 



sucking the teats of goats, whence it is called caprimulyus ; and 

 with us of communicating a deadly disorder to cattle. But the 

 truth of the matter is, the malady above mentioned is occasioned 

 by the (Estrus lovis, a dipterous insect, which lays its eggs along 

 the chines of kine, where the maggots, when hatched, eat their 

 way through the hide of the beast into the flesh, and grow to a 

 very large size. I have just talked with a man, who say she 

 has more than once stripped calves who have died of the puck- 

 eridge ; that the ail or complaint lay along the chine, where the 

 flesh was much swelled, and filled with purulent matter. I 

 myself once saw a large rough maggot of this sort squeezed 

 out of the back of a cow. In Essex these maggots are called 

 worn ills. 



The least observation and attention would convince men 

 that these birds neither injure the goatherd nor the grazier, but 

 are perfectly harmless, and subsist alone, being night birds, on 

 night insects, such as scarabcei and phalccnce ; and through the 

 month of July mostly on the Scarabceus solslitialis, which in 

 many districts abounds at that season. Those that we have 

 opened have always had their craws stuffed with large night 

 moths and their eggs, and pieces of chafers : nor does it any- 

 wise appear how they can, weak and unarmed as they seem, 

 inflict any harm upon kine, unless they possess the powers of 

 animal magnetism, and can affect them by fluttering over them. 



A fern-owl this evening (August 27) showed off in a very 

 unusual and entertaining manner, by hawking round and round 

 the circumference of my great spreading 'oak for twenty times 

 following, keeping mostly close to the grass, but occasionally 

 glancing up amidst the boughs of the tree. This amusing bird 

 was then in pursuit of a brood of some particular phalcena 

 belonging to the oak, of which there are several sorts; and 

 exhibited on the occasion a command of wing superior, I think, 

 to that of the swallow itself. 



When a person approaches the haunt of fern-owls in an 

 evening, they continue flying round the head of the obtruder ; 

 and by striking their wings together above their backs, in the 

 manner that the pigeons called smiters are known to do, make a 

 smart snap : perhaps at that time they are jealous for their 



