116 NATURAL HISTORY 



There is no bird, I believe, whose manners I have 

 studied more than those of the Caprimulgus (the goat- 

 sucker), as it is a wonderful and curious creature : but 

 I have always found that though sometimes it may 

 chatter as it flies, as I know it does, yet in general it 

 utters its jarring note sitting on a bough : and I have 

 for many a half hour watched it as it sat with its under 

 mandible quivering, and particularly this summer. It 

 perches usually on a bare twig, with its head lower 

 than its tail, in an attitude well expressed by your 

 draughtsman in the folio British Zoology. This bird 

 is most punctual in beginning its song exactly at the 

 close of day ; so exactly that I have known it strike 

 up more than once or twice just at the report of the 

 Portsmouth evening gun, which we can hear when the 

 weather is still. It appears to me past all doubt that 

 its notes are formed by organic impulse, by the powers 

 of the parts of its windpipe, formed for sound, just as 

 cats purr. You will credit me, I hope, when I assure 

 you that, as my neighbours were assembled in an her- 

 mitage on the side of a steep hill where we drink tea 4 , 

 one of these churn-owls came and settled on the cross 

 of that little straw edifice and began to chatter, and 

 continued his note for many minutes ; and we were all 

 struck with wonder to find that the organs of that little 

 animal, when put in motion, gave a sensible vibration 

 to the whole building ! This bird also sometimes makes 

 a small squeak, repeated four or five times ; and I have 

 observed that to happen when the cock has been pur- 

 suing the hen in a toying way through the boughs of a 

 tree. 



It would not be at all strange if your bat, which you 

 have procured, should prove a new one, since five 

 species have been found in the neighbouring kingdom. 

 The great sort that I mentioned is certainly a nonde- 

 script : I saw but one this summer, and that I had no 

 opportunity of taking. 



4 See the Vignette to this book. 



