640 NIGHT/JAR 
vigour that characterizes its crepuscular or nocturnal performance, 
Towards evening the bird becomes active, and it seems to pursue its 
prey throughout the night uninterruptedly, or only occasionally 
pausing for a few seconds to alight on a bare spot—a pathway or 
road—and then resuming its career. It is one of the few birds that 
absolutely make no nest, but lays its pair of beautifully-marbled 
eggs on the ground, generally where the herbage is short, and often 
actually on the soil. So light is it that the act of brooding, even 
where there is some vegetable growth, produces no visible depression 
of the grass, moss, or lichens on which the eggs rest, and the finest 
sand almost equally fails to exhibit a trace of the parental act. Yet 
scarcely any bird shows greater local attachment, and the precise 
site chosen one year is almost certain to be occupied the next 
(NIDIFICATION, p. 630). The young, covered when hatched with 
dark-spotted down, are not easily found, nor are they more easily 
discovered on becoming fledged, for their plumage almost entirely 
resembles that of the adults, being a mixture of reddish-brown, 
grey, and black, blended and mottled in a manner that passes 
description. They soon attain their full size and power of flight, 
and then take to the same manner of life as their parents. In 
autumn all leave their summer haunts for the south, but the exact 
time of their departure has hardly been ascertained. The habits of 
the Nightjar, as thus described, seem to be more or less essentially 
those of the whole subfamily—the differences observable being 
apparently less than are found in other groups of birds of similar 
extent. 
A second species of Nightjar, C. rujicollis, which is somewhat 
larger, and has the neck distinctly marked with rufous, is a summer 
visitant to the south-western parts of Europe, and especially to Spain 
and Portugal. Hancock recorded (Ibis, 1862, p. 39) the occurrence 
of a single example of this bird at Killingworth, near Newcastle-on- 
Tyne, in October 1856 ; but the season of its appearance argues the 
likelihood of its being but a casual straggler from its proper home.! 
Many other species of Caprimulgus inhabit Africa, Asia and their 
islands, while one, C. macrurus, ranges very widely and is found: in 
Australia. Very closely allied to this genus is Antrostomus,? an 
American group containing several species, of which the Chuck-will’s- 
widow, A. carolinensis, and the Whip-poor-will, 4. vociferus, of the 
eastern United States (the latter also reaching Canada) are familiar 
examples. Both these birds take their common name from the cry 
they utter, and their habits seem to be almost identical with those of 
the Old-World Nightjars. Passing over some other forms which need 
1 A third species, C. egyptius, recognizable by its pale coloration, has occurred 
about half a dozen times in Europe, and once even in England (Zool. 1883, 
pp. 374, 375). 
2 Mr. Hartert (op. cit. p. 521) denies its generic validity, and not unjustifiably. 
