CAPRIMULGUS EUROP.EUS. 221 



the morning. Towards evening the goatsucker may be seen 

 skimming along the edges of a wood, with a light, wavering 

 flight, winding in curves like a swallow, but with less speed. 

 It is seldom that more than two or three are seen at a time, 

 but Montagu says he " has observed (in Scotland) eight or ten 

 on wing together in the dusk, skimming over the surface of the 

 ground in all directions in pursuit of insects." During day it 

 rests on the ground, among furze or fern, or on the horizontal 

 branch of a tree, on which it rests longitudinally, as the 

 extreme smallness of its toes prevent it from perching like other 

 birds, although its middle toe is long and furnished with 

 peculiar serrated comb-like claws, the use of which is not well 

 known. 



From the 20th of August until near the end of September 1891 

 I watched one which frequented Abbey Park. I often saw it in 

 the gloaming hawking for insects near the burn amongst the 

 trees. It flew with great facility, jinking up and down after 

 the moths and beetles, and often alighted on the grass. It 

 took refuge during the day amongst a lot of waste wood lying 

 on the ground in a sheltered square. On turning over the 

 wood one day at noon it was startled, and flew up amongst 

 the leaves of a large plane tree, and I never saw it again. But 

 it was its time to migrate. Being either a young bird or a 

 straggler, I was not favoured with its love-note, nor, owing to 

 the dusk, could I detect exactly how it caught its prey, whether 

 by its mouth or feet. 



One shot about ten o'clock at night in the end of July had 

 four large moths in its mouth, three of which were alive an 

 hour after the bird was dead — proving that they collect insects 

 in their mouths like swifts and swallows, and have also (besides 

 their bristles) a viscid secretion to attach them. The man who 

 shot it opened its mouth, but started, exclaiming that it was 

 not dead. No wonder, for the three large living moths 

 wriggling in its mouth made him think so. 



During the breeding season, when the evening is warm and 

 still, the male — perched lengthwise on the horizontal branch of 

 a tree — makes the loud whirring noise compared to a spinning- 

 wheel. When flying, he sometimes, like a proud male pigeon, 

 strikes the tips of his wings so forcibly together as to be heard 

 at a considerable distance, at the same time emitting a sound 

 not unlike a man whistling on a dog. From the varied sounds 

 he emits, the night-jar has been likened to a little ventrilo- 

 quist. 



