THE TRUE NIGHT-JARS. 49 



at the bottom of a little valley has been enlivened by the aerial 

 gambols of the Goat-Suckers above my head, and I have heard 

 the bird make the sound very distinctly, and seen it in the air 

 at thirty or forty yards' distance, silhouetted against the sky. 

 It always seemed to arrest its flight for an instant, as if the 

 wings were clapped together over the back, and I have noticed 

 the same hesitation when the bird makes the noise, as it 

 often does, after rising from the ground. The "churring" 

 notes are decidedly ventriloquial, and are given out with great 

 power. The late Mr. Frederic Bond told me that he was once 

 " sugaring " for moths in Windsor Forest, and as it was too 

 early to commence his rounds, he sat down against the foot of 

 a tree to rest, and dropped off to sleep, when he was awakened 

 suddenly by a din which startled him nearly out of his wits for 

 the moment. A Night-Jar had settled on a neighbouring bough, 

 and had commenced to " churr." The food of the Night- Jar 

 consists almost entirely of insects, and it devours large num- 

 bers of cockchafers and beetles. Mr. Seebohm says that it 

 eats slugs, and Macgillivray found that it also devoured cater- 

 pillars. Whether the large bristles which beset the gape are 

 of use to it in catching its prey is not known for certain, and 

 they are probably only an extreme development of this feature, 

 which is found, in a greater or less degree, in all fly-catching 

 birds. Certain it is that some Night-Jars, with similar habits 

 to our own species, are almost devoid of these rictal bristles. 

 Another puzzling character found in the Night-Jar is the pec- 

 tinated claw on the middle-toe, and it is extremely difficult to 

 imagine the use of this comb-like appendage. It has been 

 suggested that it is of use to the bird in retaining a firm 

 hold on the bark of the trees, when it sits along a bough. 

 Another use for the comb has been suggested in the cleaning 

 of the long rictal bristles from the debris of the moths and 

 beetles on which the bird feeds. Dr. Giinther, who had some 

 young Night- Jars for some time in confinement, tells me that 

 the only use which he found the birds to make of this pecti- 

 nated claw was to scratch the surface of a chair or sofa on which 

 they were sitting. Thus it may be a useful appendage in 

 scratching or distributing the earth for the purpose of seeking 

 its food. 



Nest. None ; the eggs being laid in a slight depression of 

 8 



