NESTING-SERIES OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



169 



No. 88. NIGHTJAR or GOATSUCKER. 



(Caprimulgus europEeus.) 



This regular summer migrant is one of the latest to visit the British 

 Islauds, seldom arriving before the middle of May^ and departing in 

 September, though individuals sometimes linger in the south of England 

 till November. Its favourite haunts are woodland glades, commons and 

 heaths, where heather, ferns and gorse flourish ; and its food consists of 

 insects, most of which are captured on the wing, at twilight or during 

 the night. No nest is made and, towards the end of May, two 

 beautifully marbled oval eggs are deposited on the gi'ound. Incubation 

 lasts for eighteen days, and the young when hatched are covered with 

 thick greyish down. 



Norfolk, May. 



Presented by Lord Walsinghani. 



No. 89. BLACK-THROATED DIVER. 



(Colymbus arcticus.) 



Tolerably common during the breeding-season about the larger lochs 

 of the north and west of Scotland, and occasionally found in the winter 

 off the coasts of England and Ireland. In winter the plumage is 

 entirely different from that of spring, for after the rutumn moult the 

 upper parts become ashy brown and the under parts vvhite. The flight 

 is very strong and rapid, and the movements both on and below the 

 surface of the water are active and varied, though slow and awkward on 

 land. The food consists principally of fish, which are captured by diving 

 and subsequently brought to the surface and swallowed. The nest, a 

 hollow in tlie ground with little or no lining, is generally situated close 

 to the water's edge, either on a grass-grown island or (as in the present 

 instance) on the mainland. Two large olive-brown eggs, spotted with 

 black, are laid in May. 



Sutherlandshire, June. 



Presented by Colonel L. H. Irby ^ Captain S. G. Reid. 



No. 90. RED-THROATED DIVER. 



(Colymbus septentrionalis.) 



Though adults with the white throat characteristic of winter plumage 

 are commonly met with on all our coasts from autumn to spring, the 

 " Rain-Goose," as it is often called, is only known to breed, as regards tne 



