LI 1 1. NIGHTJAR 



(Caprimulgus europceus.} 



THE Nightjar is a usual summer visitor here. I have seen them 

 often in the gloaming running about on their short legs on the 

 gravel near the house, catching white ghost-moths near the grass. 

 The noise they make is peculiar, something like the purring of a 

 spinning-wheel. One cannot tell exactly where it comes from ; 

 it seems to pervade space " above, about, or underneath." In a 

 modern popular novel they are described as making a clapping 

 sound by striking tfieir wings together. I should think it was 

 more likely they made that sound with their beaks, as their 

 wing-feathers are soft and their flight is noiseless, like that of 

 the Owl. Pigeons can make a loud clapping by striking the 

 backs of their wings together, but their feathers are harder and 

 their flight audible. A friend, who has had ample opportunity 

 of observing them, tells me he has heard them make a loud 

 snapping noise with their beaks when they happened to miss 

 catching a moth they were in pursuit of. Their mode of perching 

 is peculiar, sitting on a branch lengthways, not across it, as other 

 birds do. So long as they do not move, they are very invisible 

 even in good daylight, their mottled plumage is so much the 

 same colour as the bark of the branch they sit on. 



The illustration was done from a freshly-killed specimen shot 

 in this neighbourhood. 



The Nightjar is looked upon as a bird of evil omen in this 

 country-side. During the visitation of typhoid fever here, if one 

 were seen flitting to and fro near the window of a sick-chamber, 

 it was supposed to foretell the approaching death of the inmate. 



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