^72 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 



early as the 21st of April (1847), and in 1853 I neither 

 heard nor saw one until the 4th of June ; this was very 

 late indeed, but it was a most ungenial season, as may 

 be gathered from the fact that on the night of the 13th 

 of May there were four degrees of frost, and so cold and 

 backward did the weather continue that there was little 

 grass in the meadows on the 1st of June. 



The flight of the nightjar is very light and buoyant, 

 and almost as noiseless as that of the owls; though, 

 from the nature of its food, the necessity for the latter 

 quality is not apparent. When hawking for food it 

 glides in graceful circles round the trees, every now and 

 then doubling on its course in the most rapid and sudden 

 manner. From close observation, I am of opinion that 

 these abrupt turns are not mere capricious changes in 

 its line of flight, but are occasioned by its making a dart 

 at a moth or chafer. I have repeatedly tested this by 

 throwing up a small stone as the bird flew over my head, 

 when it would invariably make a plunge at it in the way 

 I have described 



After the young are hatched, the parent birds are 

 very watchful against any approach to them ; arid when 

 walking in the forest in the evening I have constantly 

 had them swoop at my head in a threatening manner, 

 and sometimes so closely as to touch my hat with their 

 wings. During the day the female rarely leaves either 

 her eggs or young, and if disturbed feigns lameness, in 

 the manner of the partridge, to draw off her enemy. 



The use of the serrated claw of the goatsucker has 

 been, and still is, a disputed question. I have watched 

 the birds closely in a district where they are particularly 

 plentiful, and have spent much time in carefully endea- 

 vouring to discover the purpose for which this claw is 



