On Heaths and Marshes. 109 



being very apt to inspire dread in the credulous 

 countryfolk, who are firm believers in omens, prognos- 

 tics, and the like, notwithstanding the unprecedented 

 extent to which the schoolmaster has been abroad 

 during the past twenty years or more. We ought 

 also to mention another name bestowed upon the 

 Nightjar, and which, like most of the others, has 

 caused the poor bird not a little senseless persecution. 

 This is " Puckeridge", a term also applied to a fatal 

 distemper which often attacks weanling calves. The 

 Nightjar was thought by the ignorant countryman 

 to convey this disorder to the calves whilst flitting 

 about them. Poor little Nightjar! The wonder is 

 that there are any of its species left to struggle under 

 such an overwhelming burden of bad names begotten 

 of superstition and ignorance. In some districts 

 this bird is known as the " Eve-jar" or " Evening- 

 jar", and in others as the " Wheel-bird" names 

 innocent enough, suggestive of no ill deeds, but 

 eminently expressive of its habits and its notes com- 

 bined. In Devonshire it is known locally as the 

 "Dor-hawk", from its habit of catching dor-beetles 

 or cockchafers; also as the " Night-crow", possibly 

 the least applicable in the entire series, unless we 

 interpret it as being derived from the bird's habit of 

 calling (crowing) at night. It is possibly a fortunate 

 thing for the Nightjar that it only spends a few 

 months out of the twelve in Europe, amongst such 



