366 Stray Notes on the Birds of Anglesea. [Sess. 



round the corner or over the top of a branch ; and should he 

 consider your presence as likely to be attended with danger, 

 off he flies silently to a safe distance, which having gained, 

 he frequently gives vent to a strange horse -like laugh, as 

 much as to say, " Chacun it son golXt — but as our tastes 

 differ, I had better give you a wide berth." Taken as a whole, 

 it is an aggravating bird, and rather trying to the temper of 

 one who is desirous of getting to close qviarters so as to watch 

 and admire its habits. Other species of Picidae are rare, and 

 only occur as occasional visitants. One of the keepers, in a 

 distant part of the island, shot what was to him and others an 

 unknown species ; and although it was described as correctly 

 as possible, it was not for several weeks afterwards, while on 

 a visit to Peeblesshire, where the specimen was sent, that I 

 had an opportunity of identifying the same. The bird in 

 question was a red-backed shrike — a somewhat sparse visitor 

 to Anglesea, although found in various counties of England. 

 The titmouse and thrush families were well represented by 

 the great, blue, cole, marsh, and long-tailed tits, by the black- 

 bird, missel, and song thrushes ; but one missed many favour- 

 ites, such as the ring- and water-ousels, crossbills, siskins, &c., 

 which, as far as could be learned, either did not inhabit the 

 island, or, at best, only occurred at rare intervals as stragglers. 

 The Hirundinidae, or swallows, existed in considerable num- 

 bers, great quantities of house- and sand-martins breeding in 

 the banks by the sea-shore. But by far the most interesting 

 bird of all was one, sometimes said, although problemat- 

 ically so, to be allied to the genus Hirundo — viz., the night- 

 jar, which is deserving of a fuller description than can be 

 given to others with which we are tolerably familiar. 



No more curious bird visits the British Isles than the night- 

 jar, arriving about the middle of May and departing south- 

 wards again in September or October. On the whole it is 

 nocturnal, or rather crepuscular, in its habits, seldom seen in 

 niimbers until the shades of evening are beginning to fall, 

 although in localities where they abound one frequently dis- 

 turbs them in broad daylight from their resting-place among 

 the fern or heather, but on these occasions they as a rule glide 

 silently off, and settle down again at no great distance. As 

 can be observed from the example exhibited, the plumage 



