A YEAR WITH NATURE. 



Sand-Martin all Swallows, in the same manner as Rooks and 

 Crows are to some people all Crows. It seems curious that, 

 although so much attention is being given by the Press of our 

 Country to our British Birds, and that probably no Country in 

 the wide world has had so many books written about its birds 

 as our own beloved Britain, such utter ignorance should still 

 prevail, and that in spite of the fact that bird literature is published 

 at a popular price, well within the reach of the peasant as well 

 as the peer. 



The tail of that interesting bird the Nightjar, is shapely and 

 well-proportioned and materially adds to the bird's graceful 

 aerial movements, which are conducted when twilight shadows 

 fall; when all Nature is hushed. 



This bird is called in some localities the Night-Hawk, and owing 

 to this is often persecuted all Hawks are but in defence of 

 the bird it is only fair to state that it does absolutely no harm ; 

 on the contrary, it is most beneficial in the destruction of myriads 

 of Moths, Chaffers, and other large insects, during its nocturnal 

 exploitations. A curious trait in the character of the Nightjar 

 is that it does not sit on a tree crosswise, as birds in general 

 do, but lengthwise, and rests upon it, instead of grasping it, 

 and that with the head low, so as to almost touch it. It builds 

 no nest, laying its two eggs upon the bare ground. 



The tail of the Leona Nightjar at once arrests attention, and 

 shows in a truly marvellous manner how the tails of two birds 

 of the same species, closely allied, may differ in their formation 

 and construction. The two long elastic shafts which issue from 

 the middle of the wing coverts, vary in length from eight or 

 ten to twenty inches They are tipped with a broad web for 

 three, four, or five inches, and occur only in the male, the female 

 being entirely destitute of these long shafted or supplementary 

 feathers. It appears that the tail of the male is more ornamental 

 than useful, inasmuch as both sexes would possess the same if 

 it was essential to the economy of the species, unless the highly 

 improbable supposition is true that the male feeds in one manner 

 and the female in another. 



In their texture the tail feathers are of an extraordinary 

 flexible character, and are blown about with .the least breath 

 of wind. 



