226 THE ROLL OF THE SEASONS 



earned it the name of " goat-sucker," our forefathers 

 thinking that it must suck the goats, if not the cows. 

 The cow is a favourite ally of the yellow wagtail, which 

 subsists on the small insects that frequent the neigh- 

 bourhood of cattle or are stirred up by them from 

 their rest in the long grass. The swarm of small life 

 will thicken round the great warm bodies by night as 

 well as by day, and the night-swallow will sweep by 

 again and again. 



When does the puckeridge sleep ? At early dusk it 

 becomes active, chasing its lifelong, but ever-wooed, 

 mate about in the silent flight of the owls, humorously 

 broken with wild clappings. Then it settles down to 

 a night of reeling of such continuous energy that we 

 cannot see how it leaves time to catch its food. And 

 by day, when we walk in the woods, as likely as not 

 we come upon the night-jars as ready as ever to fly off 

 when we come too near to their resting-place. It is 

 then that the one vanity of their plumage becomes 

 fully conspicuous. The tail is tipped with white at 

 the outside corners, and there are white notches on the 

 wings which mark their rise and fall, as though this 

 were the bird of all others that had set itself the task 

 of showing man just how flight is managed. And by 

 day it shows us how that clapping is accomplished, 

 for we can see the wing-tips meet overhead at the 

 time when the sound comes though not with the 

 eerie resonance that it acquires in the silent night. 



What it does not show us is how the bird- throat 

 can produce the prolonged reeling, jarring, churring, 

 or purring that is its speciality. Here comes in that 

 further mystification, the " comb " with which the 

 night-jar's foot is furnished. Not knowing what other 



