206 GILBEET WHITE OF SELBOKNE 1739 



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 (Estrus hovis, 

 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 calves that 

 had died of the puckeridge; that the ail or complaint lay 

 along the chine, where the flesh was full of purulent matter. 

 Once I myself saw a large rough maggot of this sort taken 

 out of the back of a cow. These maggots in Essex are 

 called wornils. The least attention would convince men 

 that these birds, weak and unarmed as they are, cannot 

 inflict any harm on kine, unless they possess the powers 

 of animal magnetism, and can affect them by fluttering 

 over them. Pray ask your brother whether he knows the 

 bird and the distemper, and whether Cheshire men are 

 perswaded that the latter is occasioned by the former. We 

 had experienced a most lovely wheat-harvest; but now 

 there is rain, which will respite the partridges for one 

 day at least. As soon as we came from town my house 

 became full of visitors ; we have had Mr. and Mrs. Sam 

 Barker from Eutland, and Miss Eliz. Barker, a fine young 

 woman, who is allowed to be a very good lesson-player on 

 the harpsichord. They left us last Tuesday. We now 

 expect my brother Thomas White and family. My brother, 

 I hear, is very well. Pray present my respects to D^ 

 Loveday, and tell him I should be very glad to see any 

 notes or remarks made by him or his venerable father on 

 the history of Selborne: could they have been procured 

 before publication, they would have been more valuable, 

 because I might then have availed myself of their correc- 

 tions. My book is still asked for in Fleet Street. A 



