1789 "WOKRYBEEES" 209 



the chine, or rather the maggots that cause it, they call 

 "worrybrees" and a single one "worrybree." But they 

 are so far from thinking these maggots prejudicial, that, 

 on the contrary, they judge the calf that has these " worry- 

 brees" in the back less likely to be struck (as they call it) 

 with the hyant^ which is or is considered a distinct disorder. 

 When they are affected with this it is perceivable by the 

 hand ; for the skin is hard, and rustles (if you know 

 that word) under the hand when rubbed by it. Sometimes 

 there is one or more spots of this nature, and sometimes 

 the body is almost covered with them. When the skin 

 is taken off, the flesh in those parts is like jelly. It is 

 deemed almost incurable, and they die in a few hours. My 

 brother never knew or heard of more than one instance 

 of a calf thus stricken recovering. That was but slightly 

 affected, perhaps in a single spot; and the owner took 

 the skin off the part and put in a rowel, or something of 

 the sort. This disorder prevails most in Spring and Autumn, 

 and commonly in calves of the first or second year, seldom 

 in older cattle. Quid existimas de hac questione, an Pucker- 

 igium sit Hyantium? and whence comes this remarkable 

 word ? Are the Hyades supposed to cause it ? I have 

 heard the expression planet-struck, but whether of this 

 disease I am not sure. In Cheshire they call calves the 

 first winter twinters, in the second year sterJcs. The last 

 is common, the other growing obsolete. I take it to be a 

 contraction of two winters ; for it is applied to them not 

 as soon as calved, but when, if they were calved in winter, 

 they are two winters old. 



D' Loveday had a letter, about six weeks ago, from 

 D"^ Chandler, still at RoUe, but talking of moving, but 

 yet, if possible, more unsettled in his plans than ever. 

 You mention jack-daws building in rabbit-burrows. It is 

 not equally extraordinary, but perhaps you may not know 

 that they build in Elden hole, a perpendicular aperture in 



VOL. II. — p 



