SUMMER 



ings round the crown of the oaks, and its flight can sometimes 

 then be watched against the half-lit sky. It is extremely 

 rapid and skilful, and the activity of its mazy motion is 

 emphasised by its silence. The nightjar flies as silently as 

 an owl ; though moths and beetles cannot be alarmed by 

 noises, like rats or mice, yet a harsher flight might set up 

 disturbing currents of air which would be equally effective 

 in scaring the prey. Very owl-like, too, is its cry of 

 ' kowick, kowick,' which it occasionally utters on the wing. 



It gathers its food in its 

 huge mouth, guarded 

 with bristles to pre- 

 vent live insects from 

 escaping. The bird's 

 wide gape gave colour 

 to the widespread 

 legend that it sucks 

 the milk of goats, 

 which is perpetuated in 

 various languages by 

 the name of goat-sucker. There is no other explanation of 

 this ancient slander, except that the rough, dry goat pastures 

 in many parts of Europe are a favourite haunt of this lover 

 of warmth and dryness. 



The grasshopper-warbler sheds another subtly changeful 

 murmur into the air of summer evenings. Though it usually 

 ceases in the later dusk, about sunset this creeping mouse- 

 like bird is almost as vocal in the river-meadows as the 

 nightjar a little later in the copses. Its voice is shriller and 

 more chirping than the nightjar's, but there is no very close 

 likeness between the irregular and fitful scraping of a grass- 

 hopper and its steady reeling cry. It is much more like the 

 sound of a fisherman's well-oiled reel, and as the bird haunts 

 the same banks as the fisherman at his favourite evening 



NIGHTJAR 



