312 Caprimulgidce. 



similar instrument. It is essentially a solitary bird, seldom to bo 

 seen even in the company of its mate, which, however, may occasion- 

 ally be found perched on another tree at a short distance. Deep 

 woods and shaded valleys, as well as fern-clad heaths and com- 

 mons are its favourite haunts, wherein it can retire from the 

 glare of daylight, and emerge at twilight on noiseless and rapid 

 wing when the moths and beetles and other night-flying insects 

 on which it preys are abroad ; its flight is generally low, for its 

 victims are to be found near the ground, and it sweeps with 

 great ease and power round the bushes and in and out among the 

 trees. With a whirling phantom-like flight, wheeling round and 

 round, and with a power of wing (says Gilbert White), exceeding 

 if possible the various evolutions and quick turns of the Swallow 

 genus. The same accurate observer adds : ' As it was playing 

 round a large oak which swarmed with fern-chafers, I saw it 

 distinctly, more than once, put out its short leg while on the 

 wing, and by a bend of the head, deliver somewhat into its 

 mouth ; hence I do not wonder at the use of the middle toe, 

 which is curiously furnished with a serrated claw.'* 



Amongst all our summer visitants (and their name is legion) 

 the Nightjar stands alone as the only nocturnal bird of the whole 

 assembly, and as it checks the increase of night-flying insects, as 

 the swallows diminish the number of those which appear by day, 

 it is not only harmless, but actively useful to man. It lays two 

 eggs on the bare ground, and to it may be attributed all the 

 plausible but erroneous tales of the Cuckoo (for which bird it has 

 often been mistaken) rearing her own young. It is to be met 

 with sparingly throughout the county, wherever deep woods 

 furnish it with shade and retirement, and even on our downs ; 

 it has more than once paid a visit to my plantations at Yatesbury. 



This concludes the tribe of ' wide-billed ' (fissirostres), and with 

 it the order of 'Perchers' (Insessores) containing twenty families 

 and no less than ninety-three species ; all occurring more or less 

 frequently in Wiltshire, and each of which we have now ex- 

 amined. In taking leave of this large Order, we may remark how 

 'White's Felbjrce,' Letter xxxvii. 



