NIGHTJAR. 165 



It feeds generally by uight, on Coleoptera, especially tlie 

 chafer, and on the night-flying moths. Gilbert White says 

 that, while watching one of these birds pursuing chafers, he 

 saw that it conveyed something to its mouth with its foot, 

 and that he supposes the serration of the middle claw to be 

 useful to the bird in holding its prey; and in Yarrell's 

 ' British Birds ' is mentioned the suggestion of Mr. Sterland, 

 that it may be an assistance to it in maintaining its hold on 

 the branch of a tree in the horizontal position which, when 

 it settles, it always assumes. It is, however, doubtful 

 whether it is designed for this purpose, or Avliat its true 

 function is. Although, as I have said, it mostly feeds by 

 night, I have several times seen it in the brightest sunshine, 

 lying on the top of a bee-hive, swooping every minute or two 

 at the bees, and have known it so engaged for many hours 

 at a time, and it is often shot Avhile thus destructively 

 employed. 



So far from avoiding the sunshine, it seems to delight in 

 it, and I have often seen it knocked on the head by the all- 

 destroying keeper. 



My son, going about one night with a lantern, collecting 

 moths on sugar, observed one thus stretched out on the top 

 of a post, and, turning his lantern on it, the bird was so 

 dazed by the light that it allowed itself to be stroked down 

 the back. Its note exactly resembles the sound of a spinning 

 wheel, and the " Spinning Wheel Copse " has from time 

 immemorial been the name of a small wood in a neighbouring 

 parish, which is more resorted to by Nightjars than any spot 

 with which I am acquainted. It has another note, resembling 

 that caused by the passage of a whip through the air. It 

 has extraordinary powers of flight, twisting and wheeling 

 about in all directions. 



It lays its eggs, making no nest, on the ground, in an open 

 space in a wood, and seems fond of placing them among the 



