BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 103 



regular autumnal visitant, a few perhaps arriving 

 in the spring and remaining to breed, hut by far the 

 greater number only making their appearance on 

 their southward migration in the autumn. The 

 Nightjar occasionally remains very late in the 

 Islands, as Miss Carey records one in the ' Zoologist ' 

 for 1872 as occurring on the 16th of October ; and I 

 have one killed as late as the 12th of November : 

 this bird had its stomach crammed with black 

 beetles, not our common domestic nuisances, but 

 small winged black beetles : these dates are later 

 than the Nightjar usually remains in England, 

 though Yarrell notices one in Devon as late as the 

 6th of November, and one in Cornwall on the 27th 

 of November. Colonel Irby, on the faith of Fabier, 

 says the Nightjars cross the Straits of Gibraltar on 

 their southward journey from September to 

 November ; so these late stayers in Cornwall and 

 Guernsey have not much time to complete their 

 journey if they intend going as far south as the 

 coast of Africa ; perhaps, however the Guernsey ones 

 have no such intention, as Mr. Gallienne, in his 

 remarks published with Professor Ansted's list, says 

 " The Nightjar breeds here, and I have obtained it 

 summer and winter." Mr. MacCulloch tells me the 

 Goatsucker is looked upon by the Guernsey people 

 as a bird of ill-omen and a companion of witches in 

 their aerial rambles. The bird-stuff er in Alderney 

 had some wings of Nightjars nailed up behind his 



