312 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



lat. 67" N. Over Europe it is generally distributed. 

 In Asia its southern breeding-limits appear to be in 

 the Himalayas, but in winter it goes down to the 

 Phillipines, Burmah, and Ceylon, and in Africa to 

 Natal." 



CASE 67. 



THE NIGHTJAR. 

 Oi^der, Picarice. Family, Caprmitdgidce. 



This species seems to be fairly well distributed, 

 but I cannot lay claim to much personal knowledge 

 about it. From what I can gather, however, from 

 ornithological books it would appear that the Night- 

 jar does not visit our shores before the middle of 

 May, and leaves us again in September. It is 

 entirely nocturnal in its habits, and is silent and 

 almost motionless during the daytime, either sitting 

 on the orround amono-st coarse herbaore, bracken, 

 heather, etc., or lying along the branch of a tree, not 

 across it. 



Owing to the markings assimilating very much 

 with the surroundings in which the Nightjar is 

 found, it is hardly ever seen in the daytime, unless 

 surprised by someone almost treading on it ; at 

 night, however, in the twilight of the long summer's 

 evening it is a most fascinatino- bird to watch. Mr. 

 Swaysland, in his " Familiar Wild Birds," thus 

 admirably describes its aerial evolutions : "Though 

 dull and quiescent in daylight, the bird is vastly 



