NIGHTJAR. 349 



if undisturbed by day, tlie Nigbtjar will remain 

 quiescent, was recently communicated to me by tbe 

 Rev. Thomas Fulcber: — Whilst walking round his 

 garden on the morning of the 9th of August, 1865, about 

 half-past eight, a nightjar rose from the ground under a 

 spruce fir-tree. On following up the bird he found it 

 perched, as is their custom, lengthwise, on a wooden 

 hurdle, and from thence it flew into an ash tree across 

 an adjoining meadow, but escorted by a noisy group of 

 chaffinches and robins, " mobbing" the supposed raptor. 

 Two hours later, and again in the afternoon, it was 

 seen by Mr. Fulcber, " crouched flat on the same 

 horizontal branch lengthwise," and by no means dis- 

 turbed by his visits; and on once more going to look 

 for it between seven and eight o'clock in the evening, it 

 was still there, only quitting the branch when startled 

 by a sharp tap on the stem of the tree. This bird, 

 therefore (as Mr. Fulcher observes), " must have re- 

 mained on the same spot in the ash tree eleven hours, 

 from half-past eight in the morning till half-past seven 

 in the evening." The following is a description of some 

 singular varieties of the nightjar, which occurred during 

 two or three seasons in this county, and are the more 

 remarkable from the rarity of any variation in the sombre 

 though beautifully pencilled plumage of this species. 

 On the 27th July, 1856, a young pair were shot near 

 Holt, whose peculiar appearance may be thus described. 

 The throat, level with the eyes on either side, breast, 

 belly, wings above and below, and the two central tail 

 feathers pure white; under tail coverts partly brown 

 and white ; legs and claws flesh colour ; top of the head, 

 back, and remaining feathers of the tail as usual. The 

 two birds were alike, with the exception, that the two 

 white tail feathers were wanting in the female. During 

 the first week of September, 1858, an adult bird, exactly 

 resembling the above, was shot in the same neighbour- 



