NIGHTJAR 181 



song may be heard, a little like the song of the grasshopper warbler 

 in character ; but the warbler's song is a whisper by comparison. 

 ' The sound,' Yarrell truly saj'S, ' can be easily imitated by vibrating 

 the tongue against the roof of the mouth ; but the imitation, excel- 

 lent as it may be close to the performer, is greatly inferior in power, 

 being almost inaudible to anyone twenty yards off, while the original 

 can be heard in calm weather for half a mile or more.' Of the other 

 curious vocal performance of the nightjar the same author says : ' On 

 the wing, while toying with his mate, or executing his rapid evolutions 

 round the trees, . . . the cock occasionally produces another sound, 

 which, by some excellent observers, has been called a squeak, but 

 to the writer is exactly like that which can be made by swinging a 

 whipthong in the air.' Most of the names the bird is called by have 

 reference to its summer song spinner, wheelbird, night-churn, and 

 churn-owl. 



The nightjar deposits its two eggs on the bare ground ; their 

 colour is white or cream, blotched, mottled, clouded, and veined 

 with brown, blackish brown, and grey. One brood is reared in the 

 season. The return migration is in September. 



A single specimen of the red-necked nightjar (Caprimulgus 

 ruficollis), an inhabitant of South-western Europe, has been obtained 

 in this country ; and (in 1883) one specimen of the Egyptian night- 

 jar (Caprimulgus cegyptius"), was shot in Nottinghamshire. 



Spotted Woodpecker. 



(Great Spotted Woodpecker.) 

 Dendrocopus major. 



Crown and upper parts black ; a crimson patch on the back of 

 the head ; a white spot on each side of the neck ; scapulars, lesser 

 wing-coverts, and under parts white ; belly and under tail-coverts 

 crimson. Female : without crimson 011 the head. Length, nine 

 and a half inches. 



The present species is less common than the green woodpecker ; 

 and as it seldom goes to the ground, and usually confines its food- 

 seeking to the higher branches of trees, it is rarely seen. Nor is it 

 nearly so loquacious as the larger bird, nor so richty coloured, 

 although handsome and conspicuous in its black-and-white dress, 



