232 ON VARIOUS PARTS 



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, whence it is 

 called caprimulgus ; and with us, of com- 

 municating a deadly disorder to cattle. 

 But the truth of the matter is, the malady 

 above-mentioned is occasioned by the 

 cestrus bovis, 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 says, he 

 has more than once stripped calves who 

 have died of the puckeridge ; that the ail 

 or complaint lay along the chine, where 

 the flesh was much swelled, and filled with 

 purulent matter. Once I myself saw a 

 large rough maggot of this sort squeezed 

 out of the back of a cow. 



These maggots in Essex are called 

 wornils. 



The least observation and attention 

 would convince men, that these birds nei- 



