134 British Birds y 



ALPINE ^\NIET—{Cypselus melba ; formerly, 

 C. Alpimis). 



White-bellied Swift. — A bird which is known to 

 have visited us on some half dozen occasions or so. 



FAMILY II.— CAPRIMULGIDiE. 



NIGHT- J All — ( Caprimulgiis EuropcBits). 



Night Hawk, Goat-sucker, Dor Hawk, Fern Ovvl, 

 Night Crow, Jar Owl, Churn Owl, Wheel-bird, Eve- 

 churr, Night-churr, Puckeridge. — Far more familiar to 

 many of the comparatively few among country dwellers 

 who notice such matters, is the Night-jar by sound than 

 by sight. Coming from its retirement but very little and 

 very reluctantly by day, and only pursuing its prey 

 towards and during twilight, it is not by any means 

 an obtrusive bird ; as little so, indeed, as any one of 

 the Owls. But its loud churring or jarring note, as it 

 wheels round a tree or clump of trees, is, often enough, 

 heard by many a one to whom its form and size and 

 plumage are nearly or utterly strange. It is perhaps 

 most frequently met with where patches of furze and 

 fern on open commons, not too far from the neigh- 

 bourhood of plantations, occur. The Night-jar can 

 hardly be said to make a nest ; but lays two eggs in any 

 slight natural depression of the ground which she can 

 find sufficiently near a bush or clump of whins to be 

 at least partly concealed by it. The eggs are very 

 oval in shape, and very beautifully mottled and 

 clouded and veined with varying tints of bluish 



