416 OBSERVATIONS ON 



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 oestrus 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 neither injure the goatherd nor the 

 grazier, but are perfectly harmless, and subsist alone, being 

 night birds, on night insects, such as scarabaei, and 

 phalaenae ; and through the month of July mostly on the 

 scarabaeus solstitialis, 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 chaffers : nor does it anywise 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 phalaena 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. 



