Pic aria n Birds. 97 



feather itself. The colour is brown, with a gloss of green or steel-blue on the 

 black wings and tail, and the throat is conspicuously white. The bird breeds in 

 Central and Eastern Siberia, and winters in Australia. It has been procured in 

 England on two occasions, once near Colchester, and again near Ringwood in Hamp- 

 shire. It nests in the mountains, and resembles the other Swifts in its habits, but 

 is of course a much more powerful bird, and one of the fastest fliers in existence. 

 It is often seen in large flocks on migration. 



Like the Swifts, the Nightjars have a very wide gape, but 



THE NIGHTJARS. jj^g latter is also equipped with some very strong bristles, the 



use of which is still doubtful. They have been associated by 



many writers with the Owls, probably on account of their 



soft and Owl-like plumage, and also because, like the Striges, they have the habit 



of coming out in the gloaming to seek for their food. There is, however, scarcely any 



relationship to be traced between them and the Owls, and the nearest allies of the 



Nightjars among our British birds are certainly the Swifts, but even here there are 



differences between the two groups. Between the harsh body-feathering of the Swifts 



and the soft mottled plumage of the Nightjars, there is a striking divergence, and 



the latter birds mostly lay distinctly marbled eggs on the ground, without an 



attempt at a nest, and have, moreover, downy young, whereas the Swifts lay white 



eggs under the shelter of a roof or other substantial covering and the young are 



hatched naked. 



The true Nightjars (Cupriiiiulgiiiu) are of nearly wide-world distribution, 

 and are represented in Great Britain by a single species which visits our islands 

 regularly in summer, while two other species are occasional visitors. The true 

 Nightjars, or ' Goat-suckers ' as they are often familiarh' called, have a pectinated 

 middle claw; that is to say. the edge of it is toothed like a comb. 



Our Nightjar is found over the greater part of Europe 



' ' in summer, and e.Ktends into Western Siberia, its winter home 



NIGHTJAR. , .o,,r- ,j , ,it 



being in South Africa. Its denselv mottled plumage is 

 iCaprtnntlgiiseiti'of^iVits.) . l . 



impossible to describe in detail, but it can be distinguished from 



the other European Goat-suckers by the absence of the rufous collar, and by having 



a white spot on the inner web of the three outer primary quills, and b}- the large 



white spot at the end of the tail-feathers. These white spots are represented in the 



female by spots of ochreous buff. 



The Nightjar is crepuscular in its habits, that is to saj', it is a bird of the 



twilight, and it is only when disturbed that it ventures to fly in the da3'-time. In 



the evening its unmistakable churring note is heard in heathy districts or near open 



forest-land, and this peculiar note is generally uttered when the bird is sitting 



lengthwise along a branch ; for, unlike most birds, the Nightjar never perches on 



a branch transversely, but alwa)s dlong the surface of the latter. Its food consists 



entirely of moths and other insects, and when rising from the ground, or when 



