BIRDS. 451 



it strikes at 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, whence it is called Caprimulgus 15 ; and 

 with us, of communicating a deadly disorder to cattle. 

 But the truth of the matter is, the malady above-men- 

 tioned is occasioned by the CEstrus Bovis','& 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. 



15 This poor bird appears to be the butt of innumerable mistakes in all 

 quarters; for, though it feeds, like the bats, upon nocturnal moths and 

 other night-flying insects, the small birds show by the attacks they make 

 upon it, that they believe it to prey upon them. The attacks made by 

 swallows and other small birds upon hawks, shrikes, polecats, and in- 

 deed on all animals of prey, must have met the observation of almost 

 every person, all the weakest and most helpless birds in a neighbour- 

 hood uniting in a body to drive the invaders away. I have somewhere 

 met with an account of a similar attack upon a hunting spider by flies, 

 though I must look upon this as quite anomalous, for amongst thousands 

 of these spiders whose proceedings I have watched, I never observed 

 such an occurrence. But connected with such singular attacks of the 

 weak upon the strong, a much more remarkable circumstance is fre- 

 quently witnessed ; for passing over the cuckoo, who is persecuted by 

 small birds, evidently because they mistake him for a hawk, most night- 

 birds are attacked in the same way whenever they make their appearance 

 by day. We might perhaps refer this in the case of owls to the general 

 principle, though owls never prey upon birds, if they can procure mice 

 and other small quadrupeds. 



The name which this bird has received in all languages of goat-sucker 

 (most absurdly continued by most recent naturalists in the term Capri- 

 mulgus), shows the opinion entertained of it by the vulgar. It is however 

 as impossible for the night-jar to suck the teats of cattle (though most 

 birds are fond of milk) as it is for cats to suck the breath from sleeping 

 infants, of which they are absurdly accused, inasmuch as the structure of 

 their organs would baffle any such attempts. RENNIE. 



GG 2 



