NIGHTJARS. 33 



Their colours are usually various shades of black, 

 brown, grey, and white, mingled in the most 

 beautiful manner, with minute waves, lines, and 

 spots. 



GENUS CAPRIMULGUS. (LiNN.) 



The beak is here very minute and weak, the 

 edges bent inwards, the mandibles not always 

 meeting when closed. They are furnished with 

 long bristles. The tarsi are short, but still dis- 

 tinct. All the toes are directed forwards ; the 

 inner and outer toes are equal ; the middle claw is 

 pectinate or comb-like. The foot is not formed 

 for grasping ; hence the birds sit lengthwise on a 

 branch, not across it. 



Our own beautiful Nightjar (Caprimulgus Euro- 

 pceus, LINN.) is migratory, arriving on the south- 

 eastern coasts of this island about the middle of 

 May, and departing about the end of September. 

 As soon as it arrives, the swarms of cockchafers 

 become its nightly prey, and when their season is 

 ended, the fern-chafer affords it a plentiful fare. 

 Moths also, and other night-flying insects, are pur- 

 sued by it, particularly around the summits of 

 trees, and are readily engulfed in its cavernous 

 mouth, surrounded by divergent bristles. It has 

 been supposed, at least sometimes, to take its 

 flying prey with its little foot, and deliver it to 

 its mouth ; and the securing of the insect in this 

 manner has been thought one object of the ser- 

 rated claw. 



It frequently sits on a branch or a fence-rail, 

 and, with the head held as low as the feet, 

 utters, with swollen, quivering throat, its singular 

 jarring note, for a long space at a time, without 



D 



