The Natural History of Selborne 415 



and streaked somewhat in the manner of the plumage of the 

 parent bird and were equal in size at each end. The dam was 

 sitting on the eggs when found, which contained the rudiments 

 of young, and would have been hatched perhaps in a week. 

 From hence we may see the time of their breeding, which 

 corresponds pretty well with that of the swift, as does also the 

 period of their arrival. Each species is usually seen about the 

 beginning of May. Each breeds but once in a summer ; each lays 

 only two eggs. 



July 4, 1790. The woman who brought me two fern-owl's eggs 

 last year on July 14, on this day produced me two more, one of 

 which had been laid this morning, as appears plainly, because there 

 was only one in the nest the evening before. They were found, as 

 last July, on the verge of the down above the hermitage under a 

 beechen shrub, on the naked ground. Last year those eggs were 

 full of young, just ready to be hatched. 



These circumstances point out the exact time when these curious 

 nocturnal migratory birds lay their eggs and hatch their young. 

 Fern-owls, like snipes, stone-curlews, and some other birds, make no 

 nest. Birds that build on the ground do not make much of nests. 

 WHITE. 



No author that I am acquainted with has given so accurate and 

 pleasing an account of the manners and habits of the goat-sucker 

 as Mr. White, taken entirely from his own observations. Its being 

 a nocturnal bird has prevented my having many opportunities of 

 observing it. I suspect that it passes the day in concealment amidst 

 the dark and shady gloom of deep-wooded dells, or as they are 

 called here gills ; having more than once seen it roused from such 

 solitary places by my dogs, when shooting in the daytime. I have 

 also sometimes seen it in an evening, but not long enough to take 

 notice of its habits and manners. I have never seen it but in the 

 summer, between the months of May and September. MARKWICK. 



