DIARY OF THE HABITS OF NIGHT JABS. 499 



Thus the only time I have seen, or thought I have seen, anything 

 in the parent bird's bill was not just before but just after she fed 

 her young. 



9.21. — Same bird back. No appearance of anything in beak. 



9.22. — Bird flies to chicks and feeds them, I think more than 

 once, but I cannot say for certain, nor if both chicks are fed or 

 only one. 



9.24. — Chicks try to get fed again, on which parent bird flies 

 away with the impatient note. The chicks have now a well- 

 defined piping cry, which they utter when the parent bird is with 

 them ; when alone they are silent. The croodling, I now know, 

 is made by the old bird. 



9.30. — Three birds fly by close together, one or more of them 

 clapping their wings. 



9.31. — Bird (I think the lighter one) back on stump. Nothing 

 in beak, I think. Another bird, churring close by, rises and 

 flies near (but cannot see it) with loud double claps of the wings. 



9.35. — Bird on stump. Flies to chicks, and (as I think) 

 either feeds them both or one of them twice. 



9.33. — Bird churring on ground somewhere near, and rises 

 choo-oo-oo-ing and clapping wings. 



9.40. — Bird leaves chicks, and I come away. 



July 7th. — Arrive at 2.40 a.m. — Cycling down, I put up a 

 Nightjar sitting in the road. This bird kept flying in front of 

 me all the way down the road (some two hundred or three 

 hundred yards), and when I turned into the footpath amongst 

 the trees leading to plantations still followed or rather headed, 

 me nearly as far again. It seemed as if my appearance at such 

 an hour piqued the bird's curiosity. 



2.40. — Hen bird settles on elder-stump, and then keeps 

 uttering a note like " tchug tchug," a low somewhat parrot-like 

 sound. Soon the other bird flies to her as she sits on the stump, 

 flutters about her without alighting, and flies off. In a minute 

 or two again flies close by her. 



2.50. — Bird flies twice quite near, clapping wings, and then 

 twice again in as many minutes. 



2.54. — Bird leaves stump. 



3 o'clock. — Same bird back on stump. In a minute or two 

 flies to chicks and feeds both well. She darted at them in a 



2k2 



