THE NIGHTJAR. 211 



and often have to contend with sparrows for possession of the holes. 

 I have witnessed many tough and noisy fights of this kind, and 

 have caught all the combatants by spreading a net over the entrance. 



It sometimes happens that Swifts, obeying their unconquerable 

 instincts, will, at the close of a stormy season, desert their unfledged 

 young and leave them to perish of hunger. Late broods especially 

 are subject to this unnatural desertion. Oftener than once I have 

 seen the little round sooty faces of the young ones peering out of 

 their holes and plaintively crying for food, after which they crept 

 back to die. In these very nests on the return of another season, 

 the same old birds have been known to re-arrange their building 

 materials a few straws merely being laid over the bones of the 

 abandoned to receive a new family. 



The Swift has been seen occasionally in Orkney; it was observed 

 in 1830 and again in 1847. 



INSESSOfiES. CAPRIMULGID^E. 



FISSIROSTRES. 



THE NIGHTJAR. 



CAPRIMULGUS EUROPOEUS. 

 An t' seabhag oidhche. 



THE familiar goatsucker is a common bird in almost every Scottish 

 county from Wigtown to the North of Caithness, extending also 

 to the inner group of islands, but not, so far as I can learn, reaching 

 the Outer Hebrides. It is not uncommon in Islay, lona, and Mull, 

 and is generally distributed in Skye, in all of which islands eggs 

 have been found. 



In the Western Highlands, the haunts of the Nightjar are, for 

 the most part, in retired tracts which are covered with "brackens," 

 or in the vicinity of fir woods where, on still evenings, its strange 

 jarring cry may be heard till an advanced hour. Occasionally, 

 however, it is seen hawking for insects in parks in the low grounds, 

 and at times it approaches even large towns like Glasgow. It is 

 observed annually frequenting the South Side Park of that city, 

 and dexterously pursuing its flight among the trees in quest of 

 night-flying moths. I have seen it also in grass fields cleverly 

 picking ghost moths (Hepialus humuli) oft' the stems, from the points 

 of which these sluggish insects were temptingly hanging. But as 



