THE NIGHTJAR. 91 



stumps of furze have been left lying among the bleached 

 pebbles. Here the bird resembles the bits of dead furze-wood, 

 and the eggs are very like the pebbles. 



I generally find the Nightjar most abundant in such places 

 as the pine woods in the Breck District, especially where a large 

 extent of heath has been overgrown by self-sown Scotch pines 

 scattered in clumps, with plenty of open spaces and single 

 isolated trees. Here I have found three clutches in about two 

 hours; in all the eggs were on bare earth or amongst dead 

 pine-needles and old cones, just under the outer ends of the 

 lowest boughs of large isolated specimens of Pinus sylvestris. 

 There was also plenty of pine-bark and bits of dead wood lying 

 about, and matching very well, in colour and shape and size, 

 the sitting Nightjar. I searched in vain where the trees were 

 growing in numbers close together. 



Although the evening is usually the active time for the 

 Nightjar, I heard one on the 12th of July, 1874, "jarring" at 

 4 p.m., and a few days previously I heard one in the early 

 morning before breakfast. Gamekeepers in the Breck District 

 (in both counties) shoot Nightjars because they make a noise at 

 night. I fancy Pheasants are not troubled with nerves so much 

 as the gamekeepers seem to be, and that neither Nightjars nor 

 Nightingales (whose eggs are destroyed for the same reason) are 

 likely to spoil the night's rest of any kind of game. 



The foregoing notes show that the Nightjar arrives here in 

 the second week in May or earlier, and lays its two eggs as 

 early as the last week in May, and as late as the first week in 

 July, or later, as some of those mentioned were found unhatched 

 in the first week in August ; that its young are hatched pretty 

 early in June, and are nearly able to fly by the 28th of that 

 month ; that it occasionally raises more than one brood, one 

 brood a^jparently assisting in keeping the eggs of a later brood 

 warm ; that the late brood fly well by the first week in August ; 

 and, lastly, that the Nightjar remains here till the middle of 

 September, and has been seen on the wing as late as the middle 

 of October. 



I should be glad to know if the Nightjar usually stays later 

 in the South of England than it does here ; if there is any 

 proof of its carrying its young or eggs ; and if it ever lays more 

 than two eggs in one clutch. 



