COMMON NIGHTJAR. 313 
often returns to the same spot to rear its offspring. It is a late breeder, 
and its eggs are not usually deposited before the beginning of June. 
In some seasons they may be found as early as the end of May, but this 
is exceptional. It makes no nest, and deposits its eggs upon the ground, 
sometimes at the foot of a tree, in rare instances on a fallen trunk covered 
with moss and lichen, often in a slight depression on the far-stretching 
heathy wastes, but most commonly on a small naked flat patch of ground 
amongst the bracken and the brambles. Here the female deposits her 
two eggs; and as incubation advances a little hollow is often worn into 
the earth by the incessant sitting of the bird, but no preparation is ever 
made. Only one brood appears to be reared in the year; but if the 
first clutch of eggs is taken or destroyed others are usually laid, and 
this accounts for the late eggs of this species that are sometimes found in 
July and even in August. In such cases, however, a single egg only is 
generally found. The eggs of the Nightjar possess certain characteristics 
which easily distinguish them from the eggs of all other British birds. 
They are very similar in shape to those of the Swifts and Pigeons, and 
still more so to those of the Sand-Grouse. They are long and oval, the 
widest part of the egg being nearly in the middle, and the small end being 
scarcely more pointed than the large end. They are pure white in ground- 
colour, sometimes with a faint creamy tinge, mottled, blotched, veined, 
streaked, and clouded with brown of various shades and with underlying 
markings of violet-grey. They differ considerably in the extent and 
character of the markings. Some eggs have the spots very large, 
sparingly but evenly distributed over the surface, but the surface ones are 
rich brown, and the underlying ones violet-grey. On other eggs most 
of the markings are underlying violet-grey blotches and spots, with only 
a few small surface ones of rich brown. Some eggs are intricately 
streaked and scratched with brown surface-colour, with large streaky 
blotches of grey underneath; whilst in others this is exactly reversed, 
the underlying grey markings being principally composed of streaks and 
lines, and the surface ones mostly of blotches and spots. The shell has 
very little polish. The eggs vary in length from 1°4 to 1:1 inch, and 
in breadth from ‘95 to ‘S8inch. It is not possible to distinguish the eggs 
of the nearly allied Russet-necked Goatsucker from those of the present 
species ; but as arule the former are larger and are not quite so streaked. 
The Goatsucker sits very closely, often allowing herself to be almost 
trodden upon ere she quits her charge. When flushed she will sometimes 
flutter along the ground, feigning lameness, and trying, by many artifices, 
to draw attention from her eggs or newly-hatched young. The colours of 
the plumage are eminently protective, and effectually conceal the bird by 
harmonizing with the tints around—the dead fern-leaves, moss, and herbage. 
When perched lengthwise on a branch the Goatsucker appears like the 
