360 Wild Life in Wales 



and again I have watched Geometers so taken. Frequently 

 the bird will alight for a second on the ground, as though it 

 might sometimes capture prey there. As a result of this 

 constant heather flicking, the primary wing feathers are 

 often quite abraded, or roughened, on their inner webs, 

 towards the tips ; and a bird shot, when so engaged, was 

 found to have a quantity of pollen adhering to the downy 

 part of the feathers. To dilate from this upon the subject 

 of the distribution of pollen grains, were easy, and might, 

 perhaps, not lead in a less profitable direction than some 

 other theories, which have started from observations appar- 

 ently quite as fantastical, to be accepted later as solid facts ; 

 but it is only to the plumage of the Nightjar that it is now 

 desired to direct attention, and anyone who has the oppor- 

 tunity of examining that will find himself more deeply 

 interested the further he pursues his investigations. It is 

 not in their colouring only that the feathers arrest the atten- 

 tion though the delicate pencilling of many of them it 

 would be difficult to exaggerate, but looked at more 

 closely, they will disclose an arrangement of the downy 

 parts, that is at least as wonderful as anything to be seen in 

 a summer day's journey. The down upon some of the 

 more "fluffy" moths such, for instance, as some of the 

 " Prominents " is sufficiently complex to excite our admira- 

 tion, but it is certainly not more marvellously intricate in 

 its arrangement than are the delicate cilia on the feathers of 

 a Nightjar. To enter into any detailed account of these 

 would be too technical for a work like the present ; but 

 taking one of the primary quills, it will at once be noticed 

 that, while on all that portion of the upper part of the 

 feather which is liable to exposure when the wing is fully 

 expanded, the surface of the rami, or barbs, is comparatively 

 smooth, on the remaining portion of the inner web it is as 

 " downy " as a piece of the finest velvet-pile. Perhaps a 

 better likeness would be to the silky hairs on the back of a 

 very young animal, such as a mouse, or even to an insect ; 

 for the long filaments of " down " are seen to overlie the 

 heads of the rami, all pointing in one direction obliquely 

 towards the base of the feather, and completely covering 



