BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



CAPRIMULGUS EUROP2EUS, Linnaeus. 



NIGHTJAK. 



This singular species, both in habits and appearance, 

 is a regular summer visitant and breeds in Norfolk, 

 arriving in May, and leaving towards the end of August 

 or beginning of September. A few young birds are, 

 however, sometimes met with as late as the first week 

 in October. Although the enclosure of late years of 

 commons and waste lands has banished them from 

 many of their farmer haunts, they are still common 

 enough on the wild heathery districts in the western 

 and south-western parts of the county, as well as in the 

 vicinity of the coast, at Beeston and Hempstead, and on 

 the Sandringham and other adjoining estates, in the 

 neighbourhood of Lynn. In the vicinity of Norwich they 

 may be seen as well as heard during the light summer 

 nights on Mousehold Heath, also in the fern-growing 

 lanes about Cossey, Bowthorpe, and Earlham, and I 

 once observed one as near the city as the Asylum-lane, 

 on St. Giles'-road. In such localities as I have just 

 alluded to, they are particularly partial to the vicinity of 

 woods and plantations, where, like other nocturnal 

 feeders, they rest during the day if undisturbed; 

 although, occasionally, as noticed by Messrs. Sheppard 

 and Whitear, a single example has been seen hawking 

 for food on the wing in the middle of a bright sunny 

 day. On one occasion, whilst shooting, some years back, 

 on Narboro' Heath, in the early part of September, I 

 flushed several of these birds, which in more than one 

 instance fluttered away as if wounded, to decoy me pro- 

 bably from the vicinity of their young. The following 

 curious instance of the length of time during which, 



