246 CArRI3IULGIDE, 



sharp hooks on the legs of insects, while some have supposed 

 they are supplied to rid the birds of vermin. 



The Nightjar makes little or no nest, but under the shelter 

 of a bush takes advantage of any slight depression in the 

 ground, in which she deposits two eggs, which are generally 

 laid during the first week in June. The eggs are nearly oval 

 in form, beautifully clouded and veined with bluish grey on a 

 Avhite ground ; the length one inch two lines, by ten lines 

 and a half in breadth. The young are at first covered with 

 down, they are not difficult to rear when taken, and I have 

 known them to be kept through their first winter ; but those 

 I have had opportunities of observing never attempted to 

 feed themselves. 



The Nightjar is common in most of the southern counties 

 of England, particularly in Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire, 

 Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and westward to Cornwall, especially 

 in all the uninclosed wooded parts of these counties. Its 

 occurrence in South Wales has been already referred to. 

 Mr. Thompson sends me word that it is a constant summer 

 visiter to certain localities in Ireland, and of rare but of occa- 

 sional occurrence in other parts. It is a common bird in 

 Cumberland and Westmoreland, and according to Mr. Hawke- 

 ridge it inhabits the sea coast about Scarborough ; and 

 though not uncommon in several parts of Scotland, Mr. Dunn 

 could not hear of it in Orkney, and only saw one example in 

 Shetland, which was considered a very great curiosity. Mul- 

 ler and M. Nilsson include it among the Birds of Denmark 

 and Scandinavia. Pennant, in his Arctic Zoology, says it is 

 common over Siberia and Kampschatska, Avhere it lives not 

 only in forests, but in open countries, finding rocks and high 

 banks for shelter. It is found, as might be expected, over 

 the southern part of the European continent, particularly 

 Spain, Provence, and Italy, and has been observed as far to 

 the eastward as the countries between the Black and the Cas- 

 pian Seas. 



