ADDENDA 199 
lieve it has any powers of ventriloquism often 
ascribed to it.) Something like a sleek part- 
ridge in shape and plumage (see also water- 
rail). Colours: yellowish-brown with darker 
brown spots all over ; under parts lighter. 
The Nightjar (length ro} inches). A sum- 
mer visitor, seldom observed as it flies only 
at mght, spending the day crouched on the 
ground or on a branch with the tail touching 
what it is sitting on. Something like a large 
swallow in shape and its swift movements, 
but plumage grey, light and dark brown, 
spotted and barred black. Beak short and 
gape wide with hairs in the broad mouth to 
secure insects on flight. Note spelt, ‘ jar-r-r-r- 
r-r’ (nightjar) uttered on the wing. (Iwo 
notes spelt ‘teh, tek,’ uttered at night, have been 
variously assigned to the nightjar feeding on 
insects, the moorhen on nocturnal migration, 
the owl and bats. They are most probably 
owls’ notes.1) I have more than once in 
Guernsey mistaken this bird at dusk for a 
' But perhaps more than one kind of bird utters this 
same note at night. 
