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grounds, whether they he chalk, or free stone. I am in posses- 
sion myself of a beechen steep grove on the free stone, that I am 
persuaded would please your judicious eye ; in which there is a 
tree that measures 50 feet without bough or fork, & 24 feet 
beyond the fork: there are many as tall. I speak from long 
observation when I assert, that beechen groves to a warm aspect 
grow one-third faster than those that face to the A T . & N.E. and 
the bark is much more clean & smooth. 5 About thirty or forty 
years ago the oaks in this neighbourhood were much admired, 
viz., in Hartley wood, at Temple, & Blackmoor. 6 7 8 At the last 
place, the owner, a very ancient Yeoman, thro’ a blameable 
partiality, let his trees stand till they were red-hearted & white- 
hearted 3 or 4 feet up the stem. We have some old edible 
chest-nut-trees in this neighbourhood ; but they make vile timber, 
being always shakey, & sometimes cup -sliah ey ? 
As you seem to know the Fern-owl, or Churn-owl , or Eve-jar ■ 
I shall send you, for your amusement, the following account of that 
curious, nocturnal, migratory bird. 3 The country people here have 
a notion that the Fern-owl, which they also call Puckeridge, is 
very injurious to weanling calves by inflicting, as it strikes at them, 
the fatal distemper known to cow-leeches by the name of puckeridge. 
Thus does this harmless, illfated bird fall under a double imputa- 
tion, which it by no means deserves ; — in Italy of sucking the teats of 
goats, where it is called Caprimulgus ; & with us, of communi- 
cating a deadly disorder to cattle. But the truth of the matter is, 
the malady above-mentioned is occasioned by a dipterous insect 
called the oestrus bovis, which lays it’s eggs along the backs of 
5 See the “Observations on Vegetables.” — J.E.Il. 
• ‘‘ The oaks of Temple and Blackmoor stand high in the estimation of 
purveyors, and have furnished much naval timber ; while the trees on the 
freestone grow large, but are what workmen call shaky, and so brittle as 
often to fall to pieces in sawing.” Letter I to Pennant.— J.E.IL 
7 This term is explained, in the “Observations on Vegetables,” to mean 
that the wood is “apt to separate in round pieces like cups.” — J. E. II. 
8 This account will be found already published in the “Observations on 
Birds,” under the head of “ Fern-Owl, or Goatsucker,” and as it is in the 
same words, it is probably extracted from the notes which White had collected 
for a history of this bird to be published in the Philosophical Transactions 
of the Royal Society. See the 9th letter in the present series.— J. E. II. 
