368 THE NIGHTJAR 



to be found during the day, and for hours at a time. It does not 

 do so because unable to perch across, for it often adopts the 

 latter position when uttering its churring notes in the twilight, 1 It 

 is probably moved to do so by an instinctive sense that, thus placed, 

 it is far better concealed than when projecting across the bough. 

 Its peculiar coloration has certainly the effect of making it appear 

 a part of the bough itself. 



Like thrushes, robins, and many other species, the nightjar has 

 its favourite trees and favourite perches, to which it will return 

 again and again. There can be little doubt that it returns also each 

 spring to the same breeding haunts, whither it resorts in May on its 

 arrival from its winter quarters in Africa. That the male precedes 

 the female, and that he occupies a given nesting-area where he awaits 

 her arrival, appears equally certain. 2 



The nightjar's love-displays are known to us chiefly through the 

 observations of a German naturalist, Dr. Heinroth, 3 who succeeded in 

 keeping a pair in captivity, and had the good fortune to watch them 

 rear two broods in the same season. It was in April that a changed 

 feeling towards his companion began to make itself apparent in the 

 male. One of the first manifestations of this change must have been 

 peculiarly gratifying to the object of his attentions he refrained from 

 snatching at the food which was offered her. He also began to 

 follow her about the floor, and sit beside her. The actual display 

 took the form of standing with the front part of the body quite still, 

 and moving the tail and lower part of the body from side to side with 

 untiring zeal and the regularity of a pendulum. In his more ardent 

 moods he varied the performance by fanning the tail, thus bringing 

 into view the pure white tips to the outer tail feathers, which, with the 

 white spots on the wing, serve to distinguish the sexes. But all this 

 was merely in the nature of a prelude. A soft churring note from the 

 hen would send the enraptured bird flying in a fierce frenzy through 



1 Cf. N an man ii, Vogel Mitteleuropoa, iv. 248 (note by Dr. Hennicke). 



2 See above, vol. i. p. 421, footnote 2. 3 Journal fiir Ornithologie, 1909, 50-83. 



