164 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



covered with moss and lichen, often in a slight depression on the 

 far-stretching heathy wastes, but most commonly on a small 

 naked flat patch of ground amongst the bracken and the brambles. 

 The eggs of the Nightjar possess certain characteristics which 

 easily distinguish them from the eggs of all other British birds. 

 They are very similar in shape to those of the Swifts and Pigeons, 

 and still more so to those of the Sand Grouse. They are long 

 and oval, the widest part of the egg being nearly in the middle, 

 and the small end being scarcely more pointed than the large end. 

 They are pure white in ground-colour, sometimes with a faint 

 creamy tinge, — mottled, blotched, veined, streaked, and clouded 

 with brown of various shades, and with underlying markings of 

 violet-grey. They differ considerably in the extent and character 

 of the markings. Some eggs have the spots very large, sparingly 

 but evenly distributed over the surface, but the surface ones are 

 rich brown, and the underlying ones violet-grey. On other eggs 

 most of the markings are underlying violet-grey blotches and 

 spots, with only a few small surface ones of rich brown. Some 

 eggs are intricately streaked and scratched with brown surface- 

 colour, with large streaky blotches of grey underneath, whilst 

 in others this is exactly reversed, the underlying grey markings 

 being principally composed of streaks and lines, and the surface 

 ones mostly of blotches and spots. The shell has very little 

 polish. The eggs vary in length from 1*4 to l'l inch, and in 

 breadth from 95 to 0'8 inch. 



THE ISABELLINE NIGHTJAR. 

 (Cap rimulgus ccgyp tins.) 



The claim of the Egyptian Nightjar to be considered a British 

 bird rests on a specimen obtained near Mansfield, in Nottingham- 

 shire, on the 23rd of June, 1883. The range of the Isabelline 

 Nightjar is very restricted. Hitherto it has only been obtained 

 in Western Turkestan, Baluchistan, Egypt and Nubia. Both 

 Heuglin and Severtzow say that it is only a summer visitor to 

 its breeding-grounds, which probably also include Arabia. 



Heuglin describes the nest as a mere depression in the sand, 

 near a tuft of halfa-grass, or under the shelter of a stunted 

 bush. 



