THE NIGHTJAR. 291 



distant hedge which separated the meadow from a common. 

 Here probably its mate was performing the domestic duty 

 of incubation cheered by the dismal ditty of her partner ; 

 but I never saw her, though I undertook another nocturnal 

 chase of the musician, hunting him from tree to tree, but 

 never being able to discover his exact position, until the 

 cessation of the sound and the sudden rustling of leaves 

 announced the fact of his having taken his departure. 



In the dusk of the evening the Nightjar may commonly 

 be seen hawking for moths and beetles after the manner of 

 the Swallow-tribe, only that the flight is less rapid and 

 more tortuous. 1 once saw one on the common mentioned 

 above, hawking seemingly in company with Swifts and 

 Swallows during the bright glare of a summer afternoon ; 

 but most frequently it spends the day either resting on the 

 ground among heath or ferns or on the branch of a tree, 

 always (according to Yarrell and others) crouching close 

 down upon it, in the line of the limb, and not across it. 

 When perched on the ground it lies very close, " not rising 

 (a French author says) until the dogs are almost on it, but 

 worth shooting in September." During its ilight it is 

 said to utter a shrill whistling cry, but this I have never 

 heard. The poet Wordsworth, whose opportunities of 

 watching the Nightjar in its haunts must have been 

 numerous, considers that the whirring note is an accom- 

 paniment of the chase : — 



" The busy Dor- Hawk chases the white moth 

 With burring note " 



" The burring Dor-Hawk rovind and round is wheeling : 

 That solitary bird 

 Is all that can be heard 

 In silence, deeper far than deepest noon." 



An observer quoted by Macgillivray is of the same 



opinion, which is that also of a better authority than 



either, Gilbert White. One point in the economy of the 



Nightjar is still disputed, the use which it makes of its 



u2 



