268 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



the souls of unbaptized infants, doomed to wander for ever 

 in the air, and call them " Gabble-ratchets," i.e. corpse hounds, 

 a name which is equivalent to " Gabriel-hounds " of other 

 localities, the unseen pack which is heard by night baying 

 in the air.* This " Gabble-ratchet " in the Otley district 

 is the only one by which the country folk know the bird, 

 thus it appears the superstition is fairly rooted there ; though 

 a different version of the origin of the name is in vogue in 

 Thirsk district. The bird is " Gabble-ratch " because it 

 ratches (hoots) on the gables of houses. The jarring cry 

 is supposed to be a harbinger of death, and we find this 

 idea prominent in an old Cleveland dirge, known so long ago 

 as 1750, entitled " A Dree Neet," telling how " t' Squire 

 lay a dying," then how " t' Gabriel ratchets yelp'd aboon, 

 a gannin sowl ti chill." Mr. F. Lawton of Skelmanthorpe 

 states that when he was a boy he has heard old women talk 

 about " Gabbleratchers," and tell how they knew a certain 

 person was going to die " because Gabbleratchers were heard 

 over the house last night ! " Mr. R. Blakeborough also 

 informs me he has heard a similar tale told by a Cleveland 

 dalesman, but in this instance the bird was seen and did 

 not utter a sound. Except in very isolated districts, however, 

 these ideas are fast dying out. In concluding the folk-lore 

 of the Nightjar it may be interesting to quote a verse from 

 another old Cleveland poem, " Signs o' t* Sea," bringing in 

 the species under notice : — 



" When a sad moan fra t' beach steals t' valley throu', 

 An' t' neeght-jar wings its fleeght i' t' raven's track, 

 Then stitch neea shrood byv t' rush leeght glow. 

 For t' greedy waves '11 claim what t' grave weeant tak'." 



The vernacular names of this bird are many and varied. 

 Goatsucker is a general and well-known one. Churn Owl and 

 Fern Owl are used in Willughby's " Ornithology," 1683, 

 and the latter name is still occasionally heard in the Ripon 

 neighbourhood ; Night Crow a north-west Yorkshire and 

 also a Market Weighton term, and Night Hawk one used in 



* See Grey-lag Goose for " Gabriel-hounds." 



