MG Mr. A. L. Butler on the 



until the last week in May, when the first showers left pools 

 of standing water ; then it suddenly arrived and became 

 numerous. The birds used to appear every evening at 

 sunset, drinking at, and hawking over, pools in the rocky 

 khors. Passing close in the dusk they are strangely beautiful 

 objects, the great webs behind fluttering about as they turn 

 and twist in the air like two smaller birds following them. 



This Nightjar has been figured by Mr. Gedge as resting 

 on the ground with the " standard "-feathers vertically 

 erect, the webs protectively imitating grass-heads or bul- 

 rushes — a mistake, in my opinion, perpetuated in Professor 

 Newton's ' Dictionary of Birds/ p. 641. I do not believe 

 that this is correct, or even possible. I have repeatedly, 

 through glasses, watched the bird on the ground, both 

 drinking at dusk and asleep during the day, and the long 

 feathers were always straight out behind it, the bare shafts 

 rising in a slight curve and the webs resting sideways on 

 the ground. Mr. G. B. Middleton, in whose observations 

 I have confidence, and whom I had particularly asked to 

 observe the bird's resting- attitude, after two seasons at 

 Roseires, where the bird is plentiful, confirms this. Lord 

 Lovat ('Ibis/ 1900, p. 312) writes :—" When at rest the 

 two elongate racquet-shaped quills were always extended 

 beyond the tail, and the bird was never observed to erect 

 them vertically above the back ; indeed it seems impossible 

 that it should be able to do so." (The italics are mine.) I, 

 too, consider that it is quite impossible. The long feathers 

 are no more independently movable than any of the other 

 primaries, indeed, being thicker at the base, their attachment 

 to the bone is even more rigid. For about a quarter of an 

 inch from their base these feathers are tubular, and take the 

 upward turn which causes them to stand above the other 

 primaries. The quill is then half truncated, one side only 

 being thickened, flattened, and produced, the termination of 

 the tubular portion remaining open. All movements of the 

 long shaft and web are entirely due to its elasticity as it is 

 carried through the air. In a freshly killed bird it is quite 

 impossible to erect these feathers vertically from the base 



