100 



The Nightjar makes no nest, but simply lays it eggs in some 

 slight hollow on the ground, generally amongst heath or ferns, or 

 under the shelter of some small bush or tuft of heather. The 

 female sits very close, and will allow you to approach within a few 

 feet before it scrambles away in a low peculiar drowsy-like flight, 

 something like an owl's in daylight. I have only found the nest 

 twice in all my experience. The first I found by accident ; and if 

 it had not been the bright beautiful eyes of the bird I should have 

 trampled upon it. The second was discovered in a similar manner. 

 One was at High Stand Wood, and the other on the border of 

 Dalston Hall Wood. They lay two eggs of an oval form, both 

 ends alike ; they are very pretty eggs to my eye, being beautifully 

 marbled with bluish grey and yellowish brown on a white ground 

 — and in the same clutch you will nearly always find one more 

 blotched than the other. The greatest number of these birds I 

 ever saw together hawking was six, and that was near to Black 

 Moss Pool. 



The plumage of the Nightjar is a nice combination of grey, 

 brown and sepia beautifully blended, and shaded with rippling and 

 waving lines. The male bird has a large oval spot of white on the 

 inner web of the three first quill feathers, and at the end of the 

 two outmost tail feathers. And here I must finish this sketch of 

 the Nightjar — a most characteristic bird — by quoting the following 

 beautiful lines from Bishop Mant : — 



Why, when May is well nigh past. 

 Of Britain's summer birds the last 

 To reach our shores, in waving fern, 

 Or furze, beside some bosky bourn, 

 Hid from the piercing eye of day, 

 Their nestless eggs the Nightjar lay. 

 Then issuing forth in evening gloom, 

 With hiss, and buzz, and solemn hum. 

 As of the spinner's whirHng wheel, 

 Unseen on noiseless wings they steal, 

 Smooth gliding through the unfanned air. 

 With open months, and bristhng hair 

 Fringing that cavern wide, prepared 

 To clasp the beetle's mailed shard ; 

 Or circling, chase, in easy ring. 

 The night-moth's soft and downy wing. 



