70 BRITISH BIRDS, THEIR EGGS AND NESTS. 



IV. CAPRIMULGIDJE. 



145. NIGHT-JAR. (Caprimulgus Europseus). 

 Night Hawk, Goat-sucker, Dor Hawk, Fern Owl, Night Crow, 

 Jar Owl, Churn Owl, Wheel-bird, Eve-churr, Night-churr, Pue 

 keridge. Ear more familiar to many of the comparatively few 

 among country-dwellers who notice such matters, is the Night- 

 jar by sound than by sight. Coming from its retirement out 

 very little and very reluctantly by day, and only pursuing its 

 prey towards and during twilight, it is not by any means an 

 obtrusive bird; as little so, indeed, as any one of the Owls. Eut 

 its loud churring or jarring note, as it wheels round a tree or 

 clump o trees, is often enough heard by many a one to whom its 

 form and size and plumage are nearly or utterly strange. It is, 

 perhaps, most frequently met with where patches of furze and 

 fern on open commons, not too far from the neighbourhood of 

 plantations, occur. The Night-jar can hardly be said to make a 

 nest ; but lays two eggs in any slight natural depression of the 

 ground which she can find sufficiently near a bush or clump of 

 whins to be at least partly concealed by it. The eggs are very 

 oval in shape, and very beautifully mottled and clouded and 

 veined with varying tints of blueish lead-colour and brown, on a 

 whitish ground. Fig. 1 , plate VI. 



III. RASORES. 

 FAMILY I. COLUMBINE. 



146. RING-DOYE. (Columba palumbus). 

 Wood Pigeon, Ring Pigeon, Cushat, Cushie Doo, Queest. 

 This, the first bird in the new Order of Rasores, is tolerably we]! 

 known to every one the least acquainted with ordinary country 

 scenes and objects. A fine, handsome bird, met with every- 

 where throughout the country, and, in many parts of it, seen in 

 very large flocks in the winter time ; sure to attract attention, 

 also, as we walk through the wood, by the loud ringing clap of 

 his wings as he takes flight.; and 'all this independently of his 

 plaintive murmur in the breeding season, sounding very sweet 

 and mellow as heard from a little distance the Wood-Pigeon, 

 or Queest, or Cushat, as he is named in different districts, is as 

 prominent among wild birds as the parson of the parish among 

 his parishioners. The young birds are frequently taken from the 

 nest and reared by hand ; and the bold, fearless, confiding fami 

 liarity of such pets, considering their extreme native shyness and 

 wildness, is remarkable. The Ring Dove makes its rude plat- 

 form nest of sticks, with a cushion of roots to receive the eggs, 

 in bushes standing singly or in hedges or woods, in pollard trees, 



