The Bird Book 



ing branch, for it is long compared with its 

 breadth, the tail being equal to the body in length. 

 But it is on the wing that the Nightjar is seen to the 

 greatest advantage. In the long twilight of a sum- 

 mer's evening they venture forth and "hawk" for 

 moths and beetles, destroying large numbers of 

 cockchafers, or play together round some tall 

 tree, performing the most graceful evolutions. If 

 they chance to alight, they have the curious habit 

 of sitting lengthwise on the bough, and are thus 

 much less conspicuous, while every now and then 

 they utter their peculiar " churring " note. 



On many of our commons there are large 

 clumps of golden bloomed gorse, outside which the 

 rabbits frisk and feed in the evening, and we can- 

 not pass them by without some reference to the 

 Linnet, which constantly enlivens them with his 

 pretty song and continual twitter. The gorse is 

 quite his favourite nesting-place, and while the 

 female is sitting, the song of the male is heard at its 

 best, delivered from some prickly elevation whose 

 golden blossoms serve by contrast to heighten 

 the crimson on his breast and forehead. The 

 back is reddish-brown streaked with black, and the 

 lower breast is dull, buffy white. The female is 

 browner than her consort and lacks the crimson 

 on head and breast. Their nest is cup-shaped, 

 built of moss, fine twigs and grass, lined with 

 hair, sheep's wool and a few feathers. From four 

 to six eggs are laid, of pale, bluish ground colour, 

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