AND THE REV. R. CHURTON. 213 



mother to you, and not a step-mother. The reason that 

 Edm d White delayed his journey to Oxford was the badness 

 of the weather, which broke-up the party ; however he went 

 himself on the last day of term but one, and took his degree 

 on the last day. I rejoice to hear that y r good friend Dr. 

 Townson continues so well at his advanced time of life ; and 

 desire my respects to him. As to Dr. Chandler I have heard 

 from him twice in the course of this summer, and have 

 looked him out an house, the best in Alton : he seemed in his 

 last to pay some attention to my information ; but I have 

 doubts about his settling, and do not depend on him as a 

 neighbour. He at present is much embarrassed by the 

 troubles in France, which would render a journey through 

 that kingdom truely dangerous. He talked in his last of 

 going up to Basil, and so down the Rhine to Holland. 

 While I was in town I turned over Mr. Gough's ' Camden ' : it 

 is truely a Herculean labour: no wonder that there should be 

 some mistakes. In the map of Hants I saw Wetmer Forest 

 instead of Wolmer. Were I to live near you I verily believe 

 I should make an ornithologist of you. I have just found out 

 that the country people have a notion that the Fern-owl, or 

 Eve-jarr, which they also call a Puckeridge, is very injurious 

 to weanling calves by inflicting, as it strikes them, the fatal 

 distemper known to cow-leeches by the name of puckeridge *. 

 Thus does this harmless, ill-fated bird fall under a double 

 imputation, which it by no means deserves, in Italy, of 

 sucking the teats of goats, where it is called Caprimulgus ; 

 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 GEstrus bovis, a dipterous insect, which lays 

 its eggs along the backs of kine, where the maggots, when 

 hatched, eat their way through the hide of the beast into the 

 flesh, and grow to a large size. I have just talked with a 

 man who says he has been called in, more than once, to strip 

 the calves that had died of the puckeridge; that the ail or 

 complaint lay along the chine, where the flesh was full of 



* [These observations on the puckeridge will be found almost verbatim 

 in the Observations on Birds," Vol. I. p. 439. T. B.] 



