til ht * There is no bird, I believe, whose manners I have 



1 1 1 Q 01 studied more than that of the goat-sucker [or night- 



jar, fern or churn-owl], as it is a wonderful and 

 curious creature. 



I have always found, that though sometimes it may chatter as it 

 flies, as I know it does, yet in general it utters its jarring note sitting 

 on a bough ; and I have for many a half-hour watched it as it sat 

 with its under mandible quivering. It perches usually on a bare 

 twig, with its head lower than its tail. 



This bird is most punctual in beginning its song exactly at the 

 close of day ; so exactly that I have known it strike up more than 

 once or twice just at the report of the Portsmouth evening gun, 

 which we can hear when the weather is still. 



You will credit me, I hope, when I assure you, that, as my 

 neighbours were assembled in an hermitage on the side of a steep 

 hill where we drink tea, one of these churn-owls came and settled 

 on the cross of that little straw edifice, and began to chatter, and 

 continued his note for many minutes ; and we were all struck with 

 wonder to find that the organs of that little animal, when put in 

 motion, gave a sensible vibration to the whole building. G. W. 



140 



