Niy^htjar 



12 



J 



old place. It was the most perfect instance of protection I have 

 ever seen. 



On the only occasion when I put her off the nest, she left witli 

 the greatest reluctance, and did all in her power to distract my 

 attention from the eggs, by feigning to be wounded, dropping one 

 wing as if broken, limping ancl rolling over on one side after the 

 manner of a Partridge, Dotterel, or \\'ild Duck that has young. And 

 yet, at this time the eggs were only incubated s^ven days. I know 

 of no bird except the Nightjar that will use every wile it knows to 

 decoy 30U away from its eggs when these have been but little sat on. 

 Hosts of birds exercise this instinct in defence of their young. The 

 eggs they leave to look after themsehes, and where these are pro- 

 tectivelv coloured {e.g., the Plovers), the eggs will frequently escape 

 notice. In tlie case of the Nightjar, the bird itself is eminently 

 protected, and the eggs are the exact reverse. This the bird 

 knows, and will almost allow you to take her in your hand before 

 she will expose the underl3dng eggs. 



The Nightjar is an aberrant bird in many respects ; the newly- 

 hatched young form a case in point. In their peculiar surroundings 

 it would be fatal to them to be born naked and helpless, as happens 

 with most of the birds in this polvmorphic Order {Picaria). On the 

 C(Mitrar}-, the}- make their appearance in the world clothed in down, 

 and the colour is nearly as protective as is the mottled plumage of 

 the parents. The newlv-hatched nestlings that I have seen, did 

 not appear to be endowed with much power of voluntary locomotion 

 at first, and seemed to be rather helpless. But one observer states 

 that he picked up two newly-hatched young and set them side by 

 side on his hand ; one of these remained quiet, but the other jumped 

 off and ran like a chicken to tlie roots of a bush near by, where it 

 squatted. 



I have known the position of \'oung birds shifted — perhaps only 

 two or three feet, sometimes much further — after the nest had been 

 discovered. But I always attributed this to the parents and not 

 to an}- active movement on the part of the chicks. At any rate, I 

 have never induced any newly-hatched nestlings to use their legs at 

 all when disturbed. For the first few da\-s they appeared perfectly 

 helpless. 



Nightjars, like the Stone Curlew^ do not seem seriously bothered 

 by bright da}-light. The}' evidentl}' dislike being disturbed, but 

 once on the wing, their flight is swift and active,, and they may travel 

 a considerable distance before again seeking cover. 



Sheppard and Whitear, in their catalogue of Norfolk and Suffolk 

 birds, published in 1825 [Trans. Linn. Soc, xxv.) observe : " We have 

 twice seen a Goat-sucker hawking about in search of food in the 

 middle of the day ; and upon one of these occasions the sun was 

 shining very bright." I ha\-e seen them myself hunting before sun- 

 down, but never in full daylight. 



Booth, in his " Rough Notes " under Nightjar (Part iii.) gives 



