340 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Fieldfares I saw were two birds flying over on April 23rd. — Oliver V. 

 Aplin (Great Bourton, near Banbury, Oxon). 



Note on the Nightjar. — Having had exceptional opportunities this 

 summer, in Berkshire, of watching the habits of this curious bird, I venture 

 to send the following remarks : — On its arrival, about the end of April or 

 beginning of May, it is much bolder than it is later in the season. The 

 note is loud and discordant then, and it is easy in the twilight to walk to 

 the tree on which it may be sitting lengthwise on the branch, with head low. 

 If disturbed it gives a peevish hoot and claps its wings together behind, 

 after the manner of some pigeons, pausing an instant after each clap to 

 recover its equilibrium. Later on, as the breeding season approaches, its 

 note becomes very ventriloquial, and it is then sometimes very difficult to 

 stalk. The jarring note becomes much softer, and sometimes resembles 

 the purring of a cat. If roused from its perch whilst making this noise, 

 it continues the same note, letting it grow fainter till it dies away, and 

 then gives the cry, or " hoot," which is always uttered on the wing. The 

 bird rarely appears in daylight, though I have heard one occasionally 

 during the brightest summer afternoon. At half-past eight, at midsummer, 

 they begin to appear, and continue till shortly after ten, but on moonlight 

 evenings they may be heard till midnight. They lay earlier in the year 

 than is generally supposed, on June 25th, I found two " nests" (?), each 

 containing eggs ; one lot had been sat on for some little time ; and a keeper 

 assured me that on June 19th he found young birds. When the hen is 

 disturbed on her nest, if only one egg is laid, she flies straight away ; but if 

 she is sitting she will draw tlio intruder away by feigning a brokenjwing, 

 at the same time uttering a cry of distress. The eggs are laid on the 

 ground, not the slightest pretence of a nest being made; in one case, how- 

 ever, some fallen pine-needles had been scraped away till the bare soil was 

 reached. The hen bird appears lo select her breeding-place some time 

 before laying, notwithstanding the absence of a uest. When the eggs are 

 reached there is difficulty in seeing them, so much do they resemble the 

 ground; few better examples of "protective mimicry" could be given, 

 the eggs exactly matching in colour the leaden sand with its white stones 

 found in the district of Berkshire where these notes were taken. — T. N. 

 PosTLETHWAiTE (MiUom, Cumberland). 



Hen Harrier breeding in Dorsetshire. — The occurrence of a pair of 

 Hen Harriers nesting this year in Dorsetshire seems worth recording. 

 They selected a spot dangerously near a preserve, and the female bird 

 forfeited her life after her fifth or sixth day of incubation, as the pair were 

 flying home with a young duck and pheasant. The first egg was laid on 

 the bare ground in a bed of rushes, which was afterwards made more 

 comfortable by bits of grass being scratched together. Although she 



