OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 40* 



eggs near that place, and that they lay only two at a time on the 

 bare ground. The eggs were oblong, dusky, and streaked some- 

 what in the manner of the plumage of the parent bird, and were 

 equal in size at each end. The dam was sitting on the eggs when 

 found, which contained the rudiments of young, and would have 

 been hatched perhaps in a week. From hence we may see the 

 time of their breeding, which corresponds pretty well with that of 

 the swift, as does also the period of their arrival. Each species is 

 usually seen about the beginning of May. Each breeds but once 

 in a summer ; each lays only two eggs. 



July 4th, 1790. The woman who brought me two fern-owl's eggs 

 last year on July i4th, on this day produced me two more, one of 

 which had been laid this morning, as appears plainly, because 

 there was only one in the nest the evening before. They were 

 found, as last July, on the verge of the down above the hermitage 

 under a beechen shrub, on the naked ground. Last year those 

 eggs were full of young, just ready to be hatched. 



These circumstances point out the exact time when these curious 

 nocturnal migratory birds lay their eggs and hatch their young. 

 Fern-owls, like snipes, stone-curlews, and some other birds, make 

 no nest. Birds that build on the ground do not make much of 

 nests. WHITE. 



No author that I am acquainted with has given so accurate and 

 pleasing an account of the manners and habits of the goat- sucker 

 as Mr. White, taken entirely from his own observations. Its 

 being a nocturnal bird, has prevented my having many opportu- 

 nities of observing it. I suspect that it passes the day in conceal- 

 ment amidst the dark and shady gloom of deep-wooded dells, or 

 as they are called here gills ; having more than once seen it roused 

 from such solitary places by my dogs, when shooting in the day- 

 time. I have also sometimes seen it in an evening, but not long 

 enough to take notice of its habits and manners. I have never 

 seen it but in the summer, between the months of May and Sep- 

 tember. MARKWICK. 



