THE NIGHT.IAK ::77 



alwa\N t<> -pin. in the ino-i extraordinary manner. ..\ . i t he -round. 

 looking more like an insert than a linl. -n-_.-iin^ l\ her in<\ UK nt- 

 those of a bluebottle that has got its wings scorched in the gat*, and 

 fallen down on the table. Whilst she waft doing this, the chicks 

 would sometimes run uway, but quite as often one or both of them 

 would remain where they were apparently quite unconcerned and 

 allow me to take them up." After the feigning came the hovering. 

 " She would come quite near me, hover about, dart away and then 

 back again, sit on a thistle-tuft, leave it, as though in despair, and at 

 last re-alight on the ground, where she kept up a loud, distressed 

 kind of clucking, which, at times, became shriller, rising, as it were, to 

 an agony. The male was a little less moved. Still, he would fly quite 

 near, and often clap his wings above his back. I cannot, now, quite 

 remember whether the male ever began by spinning over the ground, in 

 tin- -ame wa\ a- the hen. lull it lie did. it did not laM lon^. and he 

 soon took to flight." 



When feigning in flight, the nightjar has been described as 

 throwing itself about in the air, as if its wings were broken, 3 and as 

 fluttering along above the bracken with outspread tail and drooping 

 wings.' Occasionally the behaviour of the bird falls under none of 

 the three heads above given. A hen bird which had young, for 



(\aillplc. Hew. \\hen tlll-hed. to the hraiieh of a tree. " \\heiv. depres 



sing and expanding her tail below the bough, and drooping and 

 shivering her wings, she uttered a low croaking note at intervals. 

 After a few seconds she became motionless and silent." Next day the 

 cock was seen doing exactly the same, uttering a constant y//, yw'k 

 (juik, distinct from the usual <-<>-ik. He also repeatedly hovered. 4 On 

 another occasion a cock, disturbed in its haunt, flew " with both wings 

 uplifted and tail spread out awry. In this attitude he not only pro- 

 tor some distance with an undiilatory nio\ eineiit. lut wheeled 



1 Hird Life Glimpse*, p. 80. 

 1 Uwher and Warren, Bird* of Ireland, p. 100. 

 1 T. A. Coward, Fauna of Cheshire, i. 257. 

 1 Coward, Joe. cit. 



