A AVINDING STREAM IN THE NEV FOREST. 



LIFE IN THE NEW FOREST— II 



By F. MARTIN DUNCAN, F.R.P.S. 



Illustrated with Photographs by the Author 



A LTHOUGH the New Forest is prob- 

 2\ ably better known to the ento- 

 mologist than to the lover of bird 

 life, the birds of the Forest are very 

 numerous and interesting, for out of the 

 354 species which are natives or visitors 

 to England, nearly 200 frequent the Forest. 

 From April to July a glad and ever- 

 increasing flood of song resounds through 

 the Forest from dawn to sunset, while, 

 borne on the wings of the soft night wind 

 of June, comes the sibilant song of the 

 Night Jar, or Night Hawk as the forester 

 generally calls it. This strange churring, 

 ventriloquial note is one of the familiar 



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Forest sounds in the dusk of a warm 

 summer's night. Keeping close cover 

 during the hours of daylight, as the 

 twilight deepens into dusk, tlie Night Jat 

 may be seen swerving and wheeling with 

 great activity and in perfect silence, in 

 pursuit of the insects on which it feeds. 

 One curious trait which helps this beautiful 

 and interesting bird to escape detection, 

 is its habit when alighting on the bough 

 of a tree to rest with its body placed 

 along the bough, and not at riglit angles 

 U) it, as is the habit of must birels. This 

 jieculiar habit, coupled with the soft 

 tones of its beautiful plumage, makes 



