350 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



liood, and again on tlie 29tli of September, 1859, a 

 young female was also killed near Holt, strongly re- 

 sembling the previous examples, having the wings, 

 throat, and upper part of the breast, with the vent and 

 under tail coverts pure white. Whether any similar 

 examples were observed in the same district during 1857, 

 I could not ascertain; certainly none were obtained; 

 but when we consider the undoubted migratory habits 

 of the nightjar, it is a fact as remarkable as it is 

 interesting to find specimens appearing in the very same 

 locahty, during three different seasons, exhibiting the 

 same striking deviations from their normal colouring. 

 There can be, I think, but little doubt that the birds of 

 1858 and 1859 were connected with the first brood in 

 1856, thus proving, as in the case of swallows and 

 martins, the annual return of certain individuals to the 

 same favourite locality. Mr. F. JSTorgate, of Sparham, a 

 young naturalist who takes considerable interest in the 

 habits and formation of birds, assures me, that a female 

 nightjar shot by himself on the 5th of August, 1865, at 

 Beeston Regis, when in company with some eight or ten 

 others, proved, on dissection, to have no less than twenty- 

 four small white worms in its eyes and brain in a state 

 of active existence, when extracted from this recently 

 killed specimen. This species is alluded to by Sir 

 Thomas Browne as "A dorhawk or kind of Accipiter 

 inuscarius, conceived to have its name from feeding 

 upon flies and beetles ; of a woodcock colour, and 

 paned like a hawk; a very little pointed bill; large 

 throat ; breedeth with us ; and lays a marvellous 

 handsome spotted egg. Though I have opened many, 

 I could never find anything considerable in their 

 maws. — Caprimulgus." 



