CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMON BIRDS. ZV 



ago a Nightjar had a predilection for the tops of some tall beeches which 

 grew close to our house, and the sound was so sonorous that I have laid 

 awake and anathematized him in no gentle terms or temper. 



The resemblance which this bird bears to the ground upon which . he 

 ordinarily sits is carried out in his eggs and young, albeit that the former 

 are by no means destitute of beauty. They are more spherical than ordi- 

 nary, and are covered with every variety of brown and grey, in a very 

 soft and varied pattern. They make no nest, but choose a bare patch or 

 hollow of earth, sheltered by a near heath-tuft, and there the young are 

 hatched, and lie like lumps of dirt or toads for a long time before they 

 make any shew of feathers. The female will not readily desert her eggs, 

 and her young never. She will suffer herself to be pelted, (as I remember 

 to my shame,) and undergo every species of persecution, in one instance, 

 as I also remember, actually extending to the loss of her tail, and yet 

 she succeeded in rearing them; under the circumstances it was certainly 

 little less than a miracle, but boys in their pursuit of natural history are 

 sadly thoughtless, and little reck of the pain which they inflict. In in- 

 culcating the taste, never let the tutor forget to instil likewise the lesson 

 of mercy. 



Before leaving my Caprimulgus, I must refer to his feet, which are worth 

 attention. He is sometimes called the Nighthawk, but this is a most ridicu- 

 lous name, unless the fact of preying upon moths and beetles entitles him 

 to it, in which case all birds which feed on living creatures are Hawks. 

 However, his feet are very small and pretty, and answer no purpose 

 apparently but that of perching, and yet the nail of the middle toe is 

 serrated, or rather pectinated, that is, like a comb. The object of this pro- 

 vision does not clearly appear. Gilbert White thought that he had seen 

 prey taken by the foot, but this was mere conjecture, and I don't see 

 how such a formation could much assist in securing the prey; certainly 

 the same formation is observable in the Heron, and in his case the prey 

 is assuredly slippery enough, but it does not appear to me that we have 

 any sufficient warrant upon evidence or observation for assigning any par- 

 ticular use for this natural comb, that is, there is nothing apparently to 

 shew the necessity or particular use of such a formation in these two birds, 

 and therefore, like many other things of the same nature, we must rest 

 content with the conviction 



"that not for nought 

 Was any one thing given or made," 



although we may not be able to discern its use. 



In speaking of Owls as mousers, as is well known, a greenhorn coming 

 to a farmer is invited to an expedition at what is called "Owl-catching," 

 at which he is easily persuaded to play the subordinate part of standing 



