NIGHTJAR — CUCKOO. 1 1 3 



THE NIGHTJAR. 



Cajmmnlgtis europceus. 

 The Nightjar is a summer visitor, but not at all a common 

 one, and in tlie north of the county it is even rare. It breeds 

 regularly on Shotover Hill, the keeper pointing out the spot to 

 me in 1884, and describing the grey-marbled eggs accurately. 

 Mr. Warner did not meet with the Nightjar in Oxon, but was 

 informed by a friend that he had listened to it many times in 

 Cokethorpe Park (m lit., Jan. i6th^ 1888), and Mr. G. Arnatt 

 has in his collection a pair^ with two eggs^ which were procured 

 in Coggs Wood, near Witney, in May, 1882. In the north of 

 the county I have no note of its having nested, and have seen 

 the birds on one or two occasions only. The Nightjar is common 

 in Bagley Wood, on the Berksliire side of the river, near Oxford 

 (A. H. Cocks in lit.). 



(4 1 

 THE CUCKOO. / / 



Cucnlus canorus. 



The Cuckoo is a common summer migrant, the numbers 

 which visit us varying, however, in different years. The 

 Cuckoo is usually silent, or broken-voiced, by the middle of 

 June, but in the cold wet summer of 1879, when everything 

 was retarded, I heard it in full song on the 4th July, and 

 again in the somewhat similar season of 1888 on the 5th 

 of that month. The Messrs. Matthews mention that on the 

 23rd and 24th September, 1848, a Cuckoo was heard singing 

 in the early part of the morning. By the early part of 

 August the old birds have left us, the young remaining a 

 week or two later. The Messrs. Matthews indeed state that 

 they will occasionally remain here as late as the end of October ; 

 but this is most unusual. 



A letter addressed by Mr. E. W. Harcourt to the Editors of 

 the Iljis, and published in that periodical (1884, p. 467), 

 contains an interesting account of an experiment carried out 

 at Nuneham, which, as far as the single instance goes, proves 



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