640 NIGHTJAR 



vigour that characterizes its crepuscular or nocturnal performance. 

 Towards evening the bird becomes active, and it seems to pursue its 

 prey throughout the night uninterruptedly, or only occasionally 

 pausing for a few seconds to alight on a bare spot — a pathway or 

 road — and then resuming its career. It is one of the few birds that 

 absolutely make no nest, but lays its pair of beautifully -marbled 

 eggs on the ground, generally where the herbage is short, and often 

 actually on the soil. So light is it that the act of brooding, even 

 where there is some vegetable growth, produces no visible depression 

 of the grass, moss, or lichens on which the eggs rest, and the finest 

 sand almost equally fails to exhibit a trace of the parental act. Yet 

 scarcely any bird shows greater local attachment, and the precise 

 site chosen one year is almost certain to be occupied the next 

 (NiDiFiCATiON, p. 630). The young, covered when hatched with 

 dark-spotted down, are not easily found, nor are they more easily 

 discovered on becoming fledged, for their plumage almost entirely 

 resembles that of the adults, being a mixture of reddish -brown, 

 grey, and black, blended and mottled iu a manner that passes 

 description. They soon attain their full size and power of flight, 

 and then take to the same manner of life as their parents. In 

 autumn all leave their summer haunts for the south, but the exact 

 time of their departure has hardly been ascertained. The habits of 

 the Nightjar, as thus described, seem to be more or less essentially 

 those of the whole subfamily — the differences observable being 

 apparently less than are found in other groups of birds of similar 

 extent. 



A second species of Nightjar, C. ruficollis, which is somewhat 

 larger, and has the neck distinctly marked with rufous, is a summer 

 visitant to the south-western parts of Europe, and especially to Spain 

 and Portugal. Hancock recorded {Ibis, 1862, p. 39) the occurrence 

 of a single example of this bird at Killingworth, near Newcastle-on- 

 Tyne, in October 1856 ; but the season of its appearance argues the 

 likelihood of its being but a casual straggler from its proper home.^ 

 Many other species of Capriraulgus inhabit Africa, Asia and their 

 islands, while one, C. macrurus, ranges very widely and is found in 

 Australia. Very closely allied to this genus is Antrostoinus,^ an 

 American group containing several species, of which the Chuck-will's- 

 widow, A. caroUnensis, and the Whip-poor-will, A. vociferus, of the 

 eastern United States (the latter also reaching Canada) are familiar 

 examples. Both these birds take their common name from the cry 

 they utter, and their habits seem to be almost identical with those of 

 the Old-World Nightjars, Passing over some other forms which need 



^ A third species, C. segyptius, recognizable by its pale coloration, lias occurred 

 about half a dozen times in Europe, and once even in England {Zool. 1883, 

 pp. 374, 37.5). 



2 Mr. Hartert (oj?. cit. p. 521) denies its generic validity, and not unjustifiably. 



