EUROPEAN GOATSUCKER. 641 



o'clock, as I had just arrived at the door of my house, an ac- 

 quaintance, who was passinjT by, enquired of me what kind of 

 bird I had in my hand. After telling him its name, he said 

 that he was very anxious to examine it. I lighted a candle, 

 and upon opening its mouth, he started, exclaiming that it was 

 not yet dead. No wonder he thought so, for in its mouth there 

 were no fewer than four large moths, three of which were 

 alive. 



" During the breeding season, and then only when the even- 

 ing is warm and still, the male, perched lengthwise upon the 

 horizontal branch of a tree, makes a loud noise, which has been 

 compared to that of a spinning-wheel. When flying, he occa- 

 sionally, like some of the pigeon tribe, strikes the points of his 

 wings so forcibly against each other as to be heard at a con- 

 siderable distance, emitting at the sametime a sound not unlike 

 that made by a person whistling upon a dog." 



Desirous of obtaining a particular account of the whirring 

 noise emitted by the Nightjar, I requested JNIr Weir to make 

 it an object of study, should a favourable opportunity occur. 

 He has accordingly favoured me with the following circum- 

 stantial and highly interesting account of observations made by 

 him : 



" In this parish, only one Nightjar has this season (1839) 

 made its appearance. On Wednesday evening, the 5th of June, 

 between eleven and twelve o'clock, while standing at the door 

 of my house, I heard a male Nightjar uttering very distinctly 

 his whirriuCT sound. On the evenings of the 8th and 9th of the 

 same month, he was heard in a moor about the distance of half 

 a mile from the former situation. He remained silent until Tues- 

 day evening, the 1 Cth of July, when lie again whirred in a moor 

 near the south-west corner of the parish. This moor is upwards 

 of a mile in circumference, and surrounded chiefly by Scotch 

 fir trees. On the 20th inst. I went thither to observe his habits. 

 It was a very pleasant evening, and the thermometer at 54°. 

 At the south-west corner of the moor, at five minutes before 

 9 o'clock, he began to whirr, and continued about two minutes. 

 He then flew about in pursuit of his prey. About ten minutes 

 after 9, he alighted upon the top of a Scotch fir, at the south- 



V0I>. III. T T 



