COMMON NIGHTJAR. 313 



often returns to the same spot to rear its offspring. It is a late breeder, 

 and its eggs are not usually deposited before the beginning of June. 

 In some seasons they may be found as early as the end of May, but this 

 is exceptional. It makes no nest, and deposits its eggs upon the ground, 

 sometimes at the foot of a tree, in rare instances on a fallen trunk covered 

 with moss and lichen, often in a slight depression on the farTstretching 

 heathy wastes, but most commonly on a small naked flat patch of ground 

 amongst the bracken and the brambles. Here the female deposits her 

 two eggs ; and as incubation advances a little hollow is often worn into 

 the earth by the incessant sitting of the bird, but no preparation is ever 

 made. Only one brood appears to be reared in the year; but if the 

 first clutch of eggs is taken or destroyed others are usually laid, and 

 this accounts for the late eggs of this species that are sometimes found in 

 July and even in August. In such cases, however, a single egg only is 

 generally found. The eggs of the Nightjar possess certain characteristics 

 which easily distinguish them from the eggs of all other British birds. 

 They are very similar in shape to those of the Swifts and Pigeons, and 

 still more so to those of the Sand-Grouse. They are long and oval, the 

 widest part of the egg being nearly in the middle, and the small end being 

 scarcely more pointed than the large end. They are pure white in ground- 

 colour, sometimes with a faint creamy tinge, mottled, blotched, veined, 

 streaked, and clouded with brown of various shades and with underlying 

 markings of violet-grey. They differ considerably in the extent and 

 character of the markings. Some eggs have the spots very large, 

 sparingly but evenly distributed over the surface, but the surface ones are 

 rich brown, and the underlying ones violet-grey. On other eggs most 

 of the markings are underlying violet-grey blotches and spots, with only 

 a few small surface ones of rich brown. Some eggs are intricately 

 streaked and scratched with brown surface-colour, with large streaky 

 blotches of grey underneath; whilst in others this is exactly reversed, 

 the underlying grey markings being principally composed of streaks and 

 lines, and the surface ones mostly of blotches and spots. The shell has 

 very little polish. The eggs vary in length from 1'4 to I'l inch, and 

 in breadth from '95 to *8 inch. It is not possible to distinguish the eggs 

 of the nearly allied Russet-necked Goatsucker from those of the present 

 species ; but as a rule the former are larger and are not quite so streaked. 

 The Goatsucker sits very closely, often allowing herself to be almost 

 trodden upon ere she quits her charge. When flushed she will sometimes 

 flutter along the ground, feigning lameness, and trying, by many artifices, 

 to draw attention from her eggs or newly -hatched young. The colours of 

 the plumage are eminently protective, and effectually conceal the bird by 

 harmonizing with the tints around the dead fern-leaves, moss, and herbage. 

 When perched lengthwise on a branch the Goatsucker appears like the 



