THE NIGHT-JAR. 



Nearly allied to the swallow, both in form and 

 manners, is this bird, which visits England about May, 

 and is a great destroyer of cockchafers and beetles. It 

 hawks on the wing for insects in the dusk of the evening, 

 and renders service to man by making them its prey. 

 It is fond of the woods, and also the banks on the mar- 

 gin of rivers. Its note resembles the noise of a spin- 

 ning-wheel. From its nocturnal habits it derives its 

 name, and is often called the night-hawk, the eve-jar, 

 and the fern-owl. It departs in the end of August, or 

 the beginning of September. 



This bird has a wide mouth, but as it cannot close its 

 bill at the sides, it is unable to suck anything, and has 

 therefore been called, in ignorance, the goat-sucker. In 

 some parts of the country, too, it is thought to wean 

 calves, by inflicting, as it strikes at them, a fatal dis- 

 temper, known by the name of puckeridge. But as its 

 structure shows it cannot injure the goat-herd, so the 

 grazier, instead of sustaining injury, is under obligation 



