220 THE EUROPEAN GOATSUCKER. 



their eggs for many years. Like the harriers, the goat-sucker 

 (or fern-owl) has almost disappeared near St Andrews. The 

 last one I got was a fine male shot at Cambo, six miles from 

 here, on the 4th of August 1857, which I stuffed, and still have 

 in my collection. I got another on the 28th of May, the same 

 year, also shot at Cambo. 



It lays on the ground (making no nest) amongst the heath, 

 ferns, or grass — -near some cultivated wooded district — also in 

 the open spaces of large woods. The eggs are two in number 

 (1J inch long), of a perfect oval, and are amongst the most 

 beautiful of our British birds' eggs — finely spotted and marbled 

 with white, yellowish brown, and grey. During incubation, 

 and when hawking for prey, the male utters a very peculiar 

 noise, not unlike the whirring of a spinning-wheel. Though 

 it may sometimes utter this burring note as it flies 

 after moths, yet, in general, it is uttered when sitting on a 

 bough. It usually perches on a bare twig, with its head lower 

 than its tail, in which position White says he has watched it 

 "for many a half-hour as it sat with its under mandible 

 quivering." He says it is most punctual in beginning its song 

 exactly at the close of the day, so exactly that he has known it 

 begin " more than once or twice just at the report of the Ports- 

 mouth evening gun." In describing which, Wordsworth 

 says— 



t; The busy dor-hawk chases the white moth with burring note." 



And in the Waggoner," he also says — 



" The burring dor-hawk round and round is wheeling, 

 That solitary bird 

 Is all that can be heard 

 In silence deeper far than that of deepest noon." 



It is called the dor-hawk from its feeding on cock-chafers, or 

 dor-beetles. The burring noise is caused by the windpipe — on 

 the same principle as cats purr. White says : — 



"You will credit me, I hope, when I assure you that, as my neighbours 

 were assembled in a hermitage on the side of a steep hill where we drink 

 tea, one of these churn-owls came and settled on the cross of that little 

 straw edifice and began to chatter, and continued for many minutes. We 

 were all struck with wonder that the organs of that little animal, when put 

 in motion, gave a vibration to the whole building ! This bird also makes 

 a small squeak, repeated four or five times, when the cock pursues the hen 

 in a tojnng way through the boughs of a tree." 



It also utters a shrill, whistling cry when on the wing. It 

 generally whirrs between twelve at night and two o'clock in 



