180 



BRITISH BIRDS 



and stony placea and is also to be met with in woods. He is found 

 in all suitable localities throughout Great Britain, but is more local 

 in Ireland. Year after year he returns to the same spot to breed, 

 faithful as the swift to its church-tower and the wryneck to its 

 hollow tree, although the unforgotten spot may be on level waste 

 land with a uniform surface. During the daylight hours he sits 

 on the ground among bracken or heather, or by the side of a furze- 

 bush, or in some open place where there is no shelter ; but so long 

 as he remains motionless it is all but impossible to detect him, so 

 closely does he resemble the earth in colour. And here we see the 

 advantage of his peculiar colouring the various soft shades of buff 



Fia. 69. NIQHTJAB. i natural size. 



and brown and grey, which at a short distance harmonise with the 

 surroundings, and render him invisible. When perching on a tree 

 he makes himself invisible in another way: his habit is to perch, 

 not crossways on a branch, but lengthways. He rises from; he 

 ground when almost trodden on, and goes away with a silent flight, 

 darting this way and that in an eccentric course, and looking more 

 like a great grey mottled and marbled moth than a bird. After 

 going a short distance he drops to earth just as suddenly as he rose. 

 After sunset he may be seen on the borders of woods, by the side of 

 hedges, and in meadows near the water, pursuing his insect prey, 

 dashing rapidly along, with quick turns and doublings, as of a lap- 

 wing at play. At this hour his curious reeling, spinning, or whirring 



