‘THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.  °- 81 
LETTER XXXVII. 
SELBORNE, 7777. 
On the r2th of July I had a fair opportunity of contemplat- 
ing the motions of the fern-owl, as it was playing round a large 
oak that swarmed with fern-chafers. The powers of its wing 
were wonderful, exceeding, if possible, the various evolutions 
and quick turns of the swallow genus. But the circumstance 
that pleased me most was, that I saw it distinctly, more than 
once, put out its short leg while on the wing, and, by a bend of 
the head, deliver somewhat into its mouth. If it takes any 
part of its prey with its foot, as I haye now the greatest reason 
to suppose it does these chafers, I no longer wonder at the use of 
its middle toe, which is curiously furnished with a serrated claw. 
[ The following interesting particulars respecting the fern-owl, 
_ from White’s Observations on Nature, will fittingly find a place 
here: — 
“The country people have a notion that the fern-owl, or 
churn-owl, or eve-jarr, which they also call a 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. But the truth of the matter is, the malady above 
mentioned is occasioned by the @s¢rus dovis, 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 do not injure the goatherd, but are perfectly 
