is also passed over by late writers; and that is the curvicauda of old Moufet, mentioned by Derham in his Physico-Theology, p. 250: an insect worthy of remark, for depositing its eggs as it flies, in so dexterous a manner on the single hairs of the legs and flanks of grass-horses. But then Derham is mistaken when he advances that this oestrus is the parent of that wonderful star-tailed maggot which he mentions afterwards; for more modern entomologists have discovered that singular production to be derived from the egg of the musca chameleon. See Geoffroy, t. 17, f. 4. A full history of noxious insects, hurtful in the field, garden, and house, suggesting all the known and likely means of destroying them, would be allowed by the public to be a most useful and important work.* What knowledge there is of this sort lies scattered, and wants to be collected; great improvements would soon follow of course. A knowledge of the properties, economy, propagation, and, in short, of the life and conversation, of these animals, is a necessary step to lead us to some method of preventing their depredations.

illustrated by figures, published in the third vol. of the "Linnæan Transactions," p. 289.-L. J.

* Such a work was published at Rouen in 1782, under the title of "Histoire des Insectes utiles et nuisibles à l'Homme, aux Bestiaux, à l'Agriculture et au Jardinage :" the author's name is Buc'hoz. Another has appeared within these few years in Germany, by Kollar. This last, which is more adapted than the former to the present state of the science, has been translated into English by J. and M. Loudon, with notes by Westwood: it is entitled "A Treatise on the Insects injurious to Gardeners, Forresters, and Farmers."-L. J.

As far as I am a judge, nothing would recommend entomology more than some neat plates that should well express the generic distinctions of insects according to Linnæus; for I am well assured that many people would study insects, could they set out with a more adequate notion of those distinctions than can be conveyed at first by words alone.*

LETTER XXXV.

Selborne, 1771.

HAPPENING to make a visit to my neighbour's peacocks, I could not help observing, that the trains of those magnificent birds appear by no means to be their tails, those long feathers growing not from their uropygium, but all up their backs. A range of short, brown, stiff feathers, about six inches long, fixed in the uropygium, is the real tail, and serves as the fulcrum to prop the train, which is long and top

When the train is up,

heavy, when set on end. nothing appears of the bird before but its head and neck; but this would not be the case, were these long feathers fixed only in the rump, as may be seen by the turkey-cock, when in a strutting attitude. By a

*Curtis's "British Entomology," in eight large octavo volumes, with exquisitely-coloured plates, in which are included dissections of the parts from which the generic characters are taken, is just the work for the student, so far as the British genera of Insects are concerned, which White would here wish to see.-L. J.

strong muscular vibration, these birds can make the shafts of their long feathers clatter like the swords of a sword-dancer; they then trample very quick with their feet, and run backwards towards the females.

I should tell you that I have got an uncommon calculus agogropila, taken out of the stomach of a fat ox. It is perfectly round, and about the size of a large Seville orange: such are, I think, usually flat.

same sex.

from its manner of feeding high in the air. I procured one of them, and found it to be a male, and made no doubt, as they accompanied together, that the other was a female; but, happening in an evening or two to procure the other likewise, I was somewhat disappointed when it appeared to be also of the This circumstance, and the great scarcity of this sort, at least in these parts, occasions some suspicions in my mind whether it is really a species, or whether it may not be the male part of the more known species, one of which may supply many females, as is known to be the case in sheep, and some other quadrupeds.* But this doubt can only be cleared by a farther examination, and some attention to the sex, of more specimens. All that I know at present is, that my two were amply furnished with the parts of generation, much resembling those of a boar.

In the extent of their wings they measured fourteen inches and an half, and four inches and an half from the nose to the tip of the tail: their heads were large, their nostrils bilobated, their shoulders broad and muscular, and their whole bodies fleshy and

* A note in regard to this species of bat has been before made. See back to Letter XXVI. p. 104. It is hardly necessary to add here, that it is a distinct species, and not the male of the more common sort. The circumstance, however, of White's observing this sex alone, is much in accordance with a fact I have observed myself, viz. that the males of this species seem to be more abundant, or, at any rate, come more abroad, than the females. I suspect, too, that the sexes keep a good deal separate, as I have found to be the case in the long-eared species, the Plecotus auritus. -L. J.

plump. Nothing could be more sleek and soft than their fur, which was of a bright chestnut-colour; their maws were full of food, but so macerated, that the quality could not be distinguished; their livers, kidneys, and hearts, were large, and their bowels covered with fat. They weighed each, when entire, full one ounce and one drachm. Within the ear there was somewhat of a peculiar structure that I did not understand perfectly,* but refer it to the observation of the curious anatomist. These creatures send forth a very rancid and offensive smell.

LETTER XXXVII.

Selborne, 1771.

On the 12th of July, I had a fair opportunity of contemplating the motions of the caprimulgus, or fern-owl, as it was playing round a large oak that swarmed with scarabæi solstitiales, or fern-chafers.†

* The part here alluded to is, probably, what naturalists term the tragus, a lengthened process in front of the auditory aperture, which, from the valuable characters it affords, is of much assistance in determining the species of bats.-L. J.

We find the following additional information regarding the fern-owl, or goat-sucker, in Mr. White's Miscellaneous Observations: The country-people have a notion that the fern-owl, or churn-owl, or eve-jar, which they also call a puckeridge, is very injurious to weaning-calves, by inflicting, as it strikes at them, a 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

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