OF NATURE. 235 



light an hour after sun-set and an hour 

 before sun-rise. 



On this day (July 14, 1789) a woman 

 brought me two eggs of a fern-owl, oreve- 

 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 per- 

 haps in a week. From hence we may see 

 the time of their breeding, which corres- 

 ponds pretty well with that of the swift, 

 as does also the period of their arrival. 

 Each species is usually seen about the her 

 ginning of May. Each breeds but once 

 in a Summer; each lays only two eggs> 



