BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. lOB 



regular autumnal visitant, a few perhaps arriving 



in the spring and remaining to breed, but by far the 



greater number only making their appearance on 



their southward migration in the autumn. The 



Nightjar occasionally remains very late in the 



Islands, as Miss Carey records one in the ' Zoologist ' 



for 1872 as occurring on the 16th of October ; and I 



have one killed as late as the 12th of November : 



this bird had its stomach crammed with black 



beetles, not our common domestic nuisances, but 



small winged black beetles : these dates are later 



than the Nightjar usually remains in England, 



though Yarrell notices one in Devon as late as the 



6th of November, and one in Cornwall on the 27th 



of November. Colonel Irby, on the faith of Fabier, 



says the Nightjars cross the Straits of Gibraltar on 



their southward journe}^ from September to 



November ; so these late stayers in Cornwall and 



Guernsey have not much time to complete their 



journey if they intend going as far south as the 



coast of Africa ; perhaps, however the Guernse}^ ones 



have no such intention, as Mr. Gallienne, in his 



remarks published with Professor Ansted's list, says 



*' The Nightjar breeds here, and I have obtained it 



summer and winter." Mr. MacCulloch tells me the 



Goatsucker is looked upon by the Guernsey people 



as a bird of ill-omen and a companion of witches in 



their aerial rambles. The bird-stuff er in Alderney 



had some wings of Nightjars nailed up behind his 



