

YOUNG NIGHTJARS 



CHAPTER II 



ONE bird there is to whom these scattered fir 

 plantations, with their surrounding, sandy territory, 

 dotted here and there with a gaunt elder-bush or 

 gnarled old hawthorn, are extremely dear, and that 

 bird is the nightjar. Nightjars are very common 

 here. If spruces and larches alternate with the 

 prevailing Scotch fir, they love to sit on the extreme 

 tip-top of one of these, and there, sometimes, they 

 will "churr" without intermission for an extra- 

 ordinary length of time. Sometimes it seems as if 

 the bird would never either move, or leave off, but 

 all at once, with a suddenness which surprises one, it 

 rises into the air, and goes off with several loud claps 

 of the wings above the back, and uttering another 

 note " quaw-ee, quaw-ee " which is never heard, 

 save during flight. After a few circles it may be 



