BIRDS WHICH FEED ON INSECTS 57 



extracts from Dixon (Among the Birds in Northern Shires] will 

 give some idea of the appearance and habits of this interesting 

 form: "Like most birds possessing some peculiarity in note or 

 appearance easily remarked by the multitude, the present species 

 has many aliases, some of which at any rate are as undeserved 

 ,as they are disastrous. Thus, that of 'Night- Hawk' brings the 

 bird into evil repute with gamekeepers, and it is shot down in 

 many localities under the firm belief that it preys upon young 

 pheasants and partridges. That of * Goat- Sucker ' is even more 

 widely prevailing, not only in our own country, but it has an 

 equivalent in almost every European language, in some cases 

 dating from a very remote antiquity. Needless to say that this 

 appellation has proved even more fatal, and has caused the poor 

 bird needless persecution in many other countries than ours, 

 owing to the absurd superstition it describes and fosters of the 

 Night- Jar's utterly fictitious habit of sucking the teats of cows 

 .and goats. Lastly, it has been the long-suffering possessor of 

 the names of ' Fern-Owl ' or ' Churn-Owl ', one relating to its 

 haunts, the other to its singular note, and both suggestive of 

 birds that have been sorely persecuted by man, in most cases 

 for purely imaginary offences. Anything flying under the name 

 of ' Owl ', whether with ' fern ', or * wood ', or ' barn ', or 

 ' horned ' attached, is considered harmful, and fair food for powder 

 and shot, so that the poor Night- Jar has suffered with the rest. 

 To his habits and appearance most, if not all, his misfortunes 

 are due. He flies about at dusk and during the nighttime, and 

 has a way of flitting round the cattle in the meadows close to 

 the heath in quest of moths and cockchafers; his plumage is soft 

 and pencilled and owl-like, whilst his enormous mouth, to the 

 ignorant countryman, seems capable of swallowing anything. 

 And yet there is no more harmless bird in the British Islands 

 than the Night- Jar. It preys upon no single creature that man 

 might covet (if perhaps we except the entomologist, who does 

 not like to see rare moths and beetles disappear like magic in 

 the evening gloom), but, on the other hand, rids the fields and 

 groves of countless numbers of injurious insect pests. . . . The 

 bird, like the bat and the owl, sleeps during the daytime, either 

 crouched flat upon the ground or seated lengthwise on some broad 

 flat branch of a tree where dense foliage gives the shade and 

 gloom it seeks, and where its beautifully-mottled and vermiculated 



