138



The Nightjar.



evening, although in the height of the breeding season the male

bird may be seen on a bough jarring away for a time and even

venture to hawk about on the wing. The bill is very small and

the mouth enormous. One might say, without exaggerating, that

when the mouth opens, the head is split in half. The tongue is very

small, heart-shaped, and is situated a long way down the mouth.

The eyes are very large and prominent, being quite as large as the

round black head of an ordinary hat pin used by ladies. Legs, feet

and toes very small. The female is much browner and paler in

colour than the male and without the oval white spots on the

flights and outer tail feathers. The young are generally hatched

early in July, and I have also found them during the early part of

August. The female, if flushed during the nesting season, will

flutter along the ground for many yards, holding the head well up,

often with mouth open and appearing as if one wing and both her

legs were broken. If the observer returns to the spot where he

first flushed her, there on a bare piece of ground, surrounded more

or less by small bushes, he will see two oval eggs, which in colour

look like veined marble, or resemble at first sight two nice shaped

pebbles, or if there are young, he will have the satisfaction of looking

upon two of the ugliest little creatures in bird life he could possibly

find. The young at first have the skin of a dark purplish shade

covered with greyish and straw-coloured hairy down, the head is

flat on top, the eye-balls bulge out of their sockets and the nostrils

greatly protrude. As the young grow they look yery ugly until the

soft downy feathers grow and fill up the cavity around the eyes

and nostrils. As soon as the young begin to feather, they will

run from the spot where they were hatched and may be found

squatting on the ground about a couple of yards away. After a day

or two they will run a few yards to another fresh bit of ground and

so on until they are able to fly. There are six dark stiff bristles

along the edge of the upper mandibles. These appear to act as a

barrier to a struggling moth or other insect when captured. The

Nightjar takes its food into its mouth and swallows it straight away,

but supposing a large moth was captured at the side of the mouth,

these bristles prevent the struggling insect from escaping, the bird

will draw its head near to its breast, and the moment the insect



