NIGHTJAR . 427 



grey dots, so as to produce a kind of powdered effect ; this being 

 variegated by certain small white areas, namely, a patch on the side of 

 the neck, a spot in the centre of each of the first three quills of the 

 wing, and the whole of the tips of the tail-feathers. In the female the 

 white markings on the wings and tail are, however, lacking. Young 

 males show all the light markings of the adults of their own sex, but 

 these are tinged with buff; while young females are distinguishable 

 from their maternal parent by the slighter development of the " comb " 

 of the middle claw. 



A summer- visitor to the British Islands, the nightjar makes a 

 longer stay than the cuckoo, arriving in May and remaining till 

 September, or even, it is said, a month or so later in the south-western 

 counties of England. Its general distribution is very similar to that 

 of the cuckoo, the summer breeding-range comprising Europe as far 

 north as about latitude 60 in Scandinavia, and thence eastwards- 

 through Central Asia about as far as the longitude of Irkutsk in 

 Siberia, while in winter it visits Africa, and south-western Asia, inclusive 

 of the north-western districts of India. Other species of the genus are 

 found over the greater part of the tropical and temperate regions of the 

 globe. Nightjars, which are nowhere very common, range all over the 

 mainland of Great Britain, but are only occasional visitors to the Outer 

 Hebrides, the Shetlands, and Orkney. They are equally widely dis- 

 tributed in Ireland, although less common in the northern and north- 

 western counties than elsewhere. A favourite haunt in the south of 

 England is the bush-clad cliffs on the east side of the Isle of Portland. 



These birds associate in pairs, and during the daytime skulk on 

 the ground either amid low vegetation (whence, perhaps, the name 

 fern-owl, by which they are known in many parts of the country), or on 

 the ledges of bare cliffs, where their mottled plumage renders them 

 absolutely invisible, unless perhaps to a very practised eye. With the 

 falling shades of evening their active life commences ; and at this time 

 they may be seen flying about their haunts with a noiseless and some- 

 what heavy flight in search of the insects which form their food ; these 

 being taken, at any rate for the most part, while on the wing. Every now 

 and then they desist for a while from flight to rest on some convenient 

 spot, which may be either the bare ground, a stump, a branch, or a 

 rock or stone ; and it is during such pauses that the peculiar and 

 characteristic " churr " or "jar" is uttered. Besides this, however, 

 there is a kind of chuckling cry, emitted while on the wing. It is the 

 former and more characteristic cry that gives rise to the local name of 

 churn-owl. 



