120 Nightjar 



continuously for perhaps three or four mintites on end. Then he fhts 

 noiselessly off, glides away into the gathering darkness, and is lost 

 to sight. That he is not ver\' far a\va\', you can tell by the occasional 

 sounds which reach you. The churring note is no longer audible ; 

 that is emitted only when the bird is at rest ; but from time to time, 

 he gives vent to a curious wliistling kind of note on the wing — this, 

 of course, is vocal — and also make a snapping sound by striking the 

 wings together over the back. These noises are often heard together, 

 and the sound made by the meeting of the wings is clearly under the 

 bird's control, for it is only intermittently heard, and is not a 

 necessary adjunct to flight. Presently, like a Flycatcher, he 

 returns to his perch, settles himself to rest, and then starts the 

 churring note again. Here he may sit for some time churring, 

 silent, and then churring again until the spirit moves him to be off 

 on the hunt once more. 



In the garden of my old home, petunias used to be grown in 

 rather large quantities round several of the borders. Whether 

 petunias are particularly rich in honey, I don't know, but they always 

 seem exceedingly attractive to insects of many kinds, more especially 

 the night-flying moths. 



Just outside lie? a common, which is a favourite locality of the 

 Nightjars. These birds seemed to know when the petunias came 

 into flower, much as a wading-bird seems to know at what hour the 

 tide will have ebbed sufficiently to expose the feeding-ground. 

 Throughout May and June I hardly ever saw a Nightjar come into 

 the garden ; outside there were plenty ; they could be seen and heard 

 in numbers any night after dusk. But in July and August they 

 would come stealing silently in one after the other, when the light 

 had quite died out, and hunt up and down these petunia beds hour 

 after hour, until the first sign of daylight sent them back to 

 the common again. 



The Nightjar is a late breeder,* and it is seldom one finds eggs 

 before the beginning of June. The eggs, two in number, are some- 

 what peculiar in shape — elliptical and tapering equally at both ends. 

 In colour they are very distincti\-e. The ground colour is white, 

 spotted or blotched with purple, lilac, and stone colour of varying 

 shades of intensity ; the range of colour-variation is \'ery large, but 

 the eggs are quite unlike those of any other British bird. 



Of nest proper there is absolutely none. The eggs are laid on 

 the flat ground without the smallest attempt at concealment. There 

 is no evidence even of a depression or hollow. The}- are just deposited 

 on the surface chosen by the birds for that purpose, without any 

 further preparation whatever. That this surface is chosen with 



*The only six clutches I have in my collection are dated as follows : — 



1. " Square Covert," Sizewell. Suffolk, July 4th, 1893. 



2. Barcaldine, Argyllshire. June 9th, iSgy. 



3. Scotts Hall, Suffolk, June 2nd, 1892. 



4. Crown Farm Common, Sizewell, Suffolk, June 0th, 1892. 



5. Scotts Hall, Suftolk, June (day not given), 1891. 



6. Scotts Hall, Suffolk, June 2nd, 1892. 



