*238 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



plentiful, arriving in the county at the end of May and 

 early part of June, in pairs. After taking up a position 

 for breeding they can always be found, and in the even- 

 ing they will circle round one, uttering loud and jarring 

 notes of alarm, and keep on following, to draw you away 

 until you are far from the eggs, which are very difficult 

 to find. 



The Kev. J. Pemberton Bartlett records the fol- 

 lowing : — • 



Notes on the Goatsucker or Night-Hawk. — " In the 

 month of July I had brought to me a pair of Night- 

 Hawks, as Goatsuckers are provincially termed in Keiit. 

 They were quite young, and had been found at the 

 foot of a tree with an egg, which was also brought to 

 me. It is generally supposed that the Goatsucker lays 

 only two eggs ; this, however, was an instance to the 

 contrary. Being desirous of rearing them, I fed them 

 with flies and other insects, which at first they appeared 

 to thrive on, but after a little, from some cause I could 

 never quite understand, they began to droop, and finding 

 they were gradually sinking I killed and stuffed them. 

 AVishing to obtain a specimen of the full-grown birds, I 

 proceeded one evening to the wood from which the young 

 ones had been taken, and after waiting a short time I 

 observed a pair of Goatsuckers (probably the parent 

 birds) hawking round an oak close to the spot described 

 to me as the place the young had been found in. I 

 succeeded in shooting them both, and found they were 

 male and female ; they are now with the young ones 

 in my cabinet. 



" It is perhaps needless to remark, that this bird 

 derives its name from the ancient and ignorant idea that 

 it sucked goats, which is in the same degree probable 



