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sucking the teats of goats, whence it is called cajjrwiulr/us ; 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 CEstrus hovis, 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 puck- 
eridge ; that the ail or complaint lay along the chine, where the 
flesh was much swelled, and filled with purulent matter. I 
myself once saw a large rough maggot of this sort squeezed 
out of the back of a cow. In Essex these maggots are called 
wornills. 
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 scarahcei dA\& ]j]icdcencB ; and through the 
month of July mostly on the Scarahceus 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 chafers : nor does it any- 
wise 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-owd 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 phalmna 
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. 
When a person approaches the haunt of fern-owls in an 
evening, they continue flying round the head of the obtruder ; 
and by striking their wings together above their backs, in the 
manner that the pigeons called smiters are known to do, make a 
smart snap : perhaps at that time they are jealous for their 
