172 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 
early as the 21st of April (1847), and in 1853 I neither 
heard nor saw one until the 4th of June; this was very 
late indeed, but it was a most ungenial season, as may 
be gathered from the fact that on the night of the 13th 
of May there were four degrees of frost, and so cold and 
backward did the weather continue that there was little 
grass in the meadows on the Ist of June. 
The flight of the nightjar is very light and buoyant, 
and almost as noiseless as that of the owls; though, 
from the nature of its food, the necessity for the latter 
quality is not apparent. When hawking for food it 
glides in graceful circles round the trees, every now and 
then doubling on its course in the most rapid and sudden 
manner. From close observation, I am of opinion that 
these abrupt turns are not mere capricious changes in 
its line of flight, but are occasioned by its making a dart 
at a moth or chafer. I have repeatedly tested this by 
throwing up a small stone as the bird flew over my head, 
when it would invariably make a plunge at it in the way 
I have described. 
After the young are hatched, the parent birds are 
very watchful against any approach to them; and when 
walking in the forest in the evening I have constantly 
had them swoop at my head in a threatening manner, 
and sometimes so closely as to touch my hat with their 
wings. During the day the female rarely leaves either 
her eggs or young, and if disturbed feigns lameness, in 
the manner of the partridge, to draw off her enemy. 
The use of the serrated claw of the goatsucker has 
been, and still is, a disputed question. I have watched 
the birds closely in a district where they are particularly 
plentiful, and have spent much time in carefully endea- 
vouring to discover the purpose for which this claw is 
