i87 



She rolled it about the floor for some time, but at last sat on it and so 

 remained until the evening. 



At 7 p.m. she left the nest and it does not appear that she again sat on 

 it that night. The second egg was laid on the 4th June. On the 3rd of 

 June she left the egg for ten minutes in the middle of the day, ate a little 

 and returned to the nest. We marked the first egg with ink : the second 

 was a little longer and heavier. " Kuuo " was very lively and affectionate 

 but " N01 ah" drove him from the nest, so he used to sit opposite her on 

 the rug, never leaving her out of his sight. The question now was whether 

 the eggs were fertile, because " Norah " had never responded very freely to 

 his advances. If fertile we expected them to hatch on the 19th. After the 

 second egg was laid " Norali " became a most devoted mother. Nothing 

 disturbed her. The room might be cleaned: anybody might look at her : 

 a cupboard close to her might be opened— she took no notice. (See plate). 



We were careful never to disturb them, although we would have liked 

 to see whether our pair would remove their eggs in their beaks as the text 

 books tell us wild Nightjars do. In every twenty-four hours " N'orah " would 

 leave the nest three or four times to feed and take exercise. During her 

 absence " Kuuo " would cover the eggs for about a quarter-of-an-hour. He 

 used to call his mate, uttering his love-note " Quick." and if she did not 

 leave the nest he would gently push her off the eggs. He used to do this 

 about eleven a.m. and eight p.m. ; at two p.m. she would generally leave of 

 her own accord. At night " Norah " alone used to sit. but I have seen 

 "Kuuo'* relieving her between three and four in the morning. The sur- 

 roundings of the nest were kept scrupulously clean by the pair. It was 

 delightful to see ' ; Norah " return to the eggs after feeding. She would 

 either fly gracefully to the nest, alighting close by, or she would run to it 

 her head held high with pride; then she would roll the eggs until she 

 tucked them comfortably under her. The day before they hatched the pair 

 were so engrossed that they both incubated side by side. 



On the iSth of June we saw the first little chip in one egg. On the 

 19th we waited impatiently for the great event, but we had to go to bed 

 before it came off. On the 20th at 4 a.m. " Norah " was sitting motionless, 

 but at 7.30 a.m. the first egg hatched. We tried to entice '•Norah" from 

 the nest by holding out mealworms to her; at last she came off and there 

 lay a charming little chick— just a little ball of light grey fluff. We took it 

 in out hands and to our surprise found it far from helpless : its weight was 



5 S rs - 



The parents were very attentive and took it in turns to feed the 



young. They do not do this in the ordinary way but, on the contrarv, the 



young one takes the parent's beak as far as the nostrils in its own tiny gape 



and holds it quite tightly and in this way food is passed into its throat. On 



the afternoon of the 20th the second egg hatched. 



For four days after hatching we left the chicks entirely to the parents. 



but we then saw that we should have to assist as they were not thriving. I 



