178 



THE NIGHTJAR, OR HAWK. 



In order of date, the Nightjar is one of the latest of the summer birds to 

 arrive, being seldom seen before the beginning of May, although, as in the 

 case of other species, one now and then hears of an exceptionally early 

 arrival. Between the months of April and October, our Nightjar is generally 

 dispersed throughout the British Islands ; by the end of September, or 

 the first week in October, these birds have returned to their winter 

 quarters in North Africa. Colonel Irby, in his recently-published volume 

 on the " Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar," states, on the authority 

 of M. Favier, that Nightjars cross the Straits, from Tangiers to Gibraltar, 

 in May and June, and return the same way, between September and 

 November ; they have been seen on the passage. Dr. Dnmimond 

 informed the late Mr. Thompson of Belfast, that when H.M.S. "San 

 Juan," of which he was surgeon, was anchored near Gibraltar, in the 

 spring of the year, a few Nightjars flew on board. During the passage 

 of H.M.S. " Beacon," from Malta to the Morea, in the month of April, 

 some of these birds appeared on the 2 7 th, and alighted on the rigging. 

 The vessel was then about fifty miles from Zante (the nearest land), and 

 sixty, west of the Morea. They came singly, with one exception, when 

 two appeared in company. 



The Nightjar, although tolerably dispersed throughout North Africa 

 during certain months of the year, does not, apparently, travel so far 

 down the east or west coasts as many of our summer migrants do. In 

 Egypt and Nubia, according to Captain Shelley, it is only met with as 

 a bird of passage, but how much further south it goes he does not say. 

 Mr. Blandford did not meet with it in Abyssinia, where its place seems to 

 be taken by two or three allied species. The same remark appHes as we 

 proceed eastward. In Syria and Palestine, Canon Tristram did not 

 observe the European Nightjar, but found a smaller and lighter coloured 

 species, on which he has bestowed the name Caprimiilgiis tamaricis. 

 Stragglers have been observed in summer and autumn for several years 

 in Shetland. The late Dr. Saxby saw it at Balta Sound, about the end 

 of July, skimming over the fields, and now and then alighting on the 



