BIRDS. 453 



and observed for two hours in the twenty-four; and 

 then in a dubious twilight an hour after sunset and an 

 hour before sunrise. 



On this day (July 14, 1789) a woman brought me two 

 eggs of a fern-owl, or eve-jarr, which she found on the 

 verge of the Hanger, to the left of the hermitage, under 

 a beechen shrub. This person, who lives just at the 

 foot of the Hanger, seems well acquainted with these 

 nocturnal swallows, and says she has often found their 

 eggs near that place, and that they lay only two at a 

 time on the bare ground. The eggs were oblong, dusky, 

 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, and 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 16 . 



16 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 noc- 

 turnal bird, has prevented my having many opportunities of observing it. 



