io8 Among the Birds in Northern Shires. 



and goats! Lastly, it has been the long-suffering 

 possessor of the names of " Fern Owl" or "Churn 

 Owl", one relating to its haunts, the other to its 

 singular note, and both suggestive of birds that have 

 been sorely persecuted by man, in most cases for 

 purely imaginary offences. Anything flying under 

 the name of " Owl", whether with " fern", or " wood", 

 or " barn", or " horned" attached, is considered harm- 

 ful, and fair food for powder and shot, so that the 

 poor Nightjar has suffered with the rest. To his 

 habits and appearance most, if not all, his misfor- 

 tunes are due. He flies about at dusk and during 

 the night-time, and has a way of flitting round the 

 cattle in the meadows close to the heath in quest 

 of moths and cockchafers; his plumage is soft and 

 pencilled and Owl-like, whilst his enormous mouth, 

 to the ignorant countryman, seems capable of swallow- 

 ing anything! And yet there is no more harmless 

 bird in the British Islands than the Nightjar. It 

 preys upon no single creature that man might covet 

 (if perhaps we except the entomologist, who does 

 not like to see rare moths and beetles disappear like 

 magic in the evening gloom), but, on the other hand, 

 rids the fields and groves of countless numbers of 

 injurious insect pests. Apart from any concrete 

 injury that it may be thought to do, it also falls 

 under the ban of the superstitious, its weird and 

 curious notes, together with its crepuscular habits, 



