BIRDS AT NIGHT 205 



their mouths are wide, their beaks are very 

 tiny and weak, not at all like the strong 

 beaks of the moreporks, and quite unfitted 

 for crunching a beetle's hard shell. 



The nightjar was the bird which the Romans 

 and Greeks called the goatsucker, because 

 they had an idea that it sucked the milk 

 from their goats at night, and you will find 

 the name goatsucker used for it in the older 

 English books on birds. Of course, though, it 

 does nothing of the kind ; when it is seen 

 near animals it is after the insects which are 

 attracted by them. 



Speaking of the curious cries of the night- 

 jars reminds one of the bird which has made 

 such a great reputation by singing at night 

 the nightingale. There are really three 

 kinds of nightingales, all very much alike : 

 the one we know, the nightingale of Eastern 

 Europe, which bird-fanciers in Germany call 

 the sprosser, and the Persian nightingale, 

 which is the bird which Eastern poets call 

 the bulbul. It is often mentioned by them, 

 because there is a pretty legend that the 

 bulbul is in love with the rose, and that the 

 queen of flowers does not open until she 



