236 ON VARIOUS PARTS 



July 4, ] 790. The woman who brought 

 me two fern-owl's eggs last year on July 

 14, on this day produced me two more, 

 one of which had been laid this morning, 

 as appears plainly, because there was only 

 one in the nest the evening before. They 

 were found, as last July, on the verge of 

 the down above the hermitage under a 

 beechen shrub, on the naked ground. 

 Last year those eggs were full of young, 

 and just ready to be hatched. 



These circumstances point out the exact 

 time when these curious nocturnal migra- 

 tory birds lay their eggs and hatch their 

 young. Fern-owls, like snipes, stone cur- 

 lews, and some other birds, make no nest. 

 Birds that build on the ground do not 

 make much of nests. White. 



No author that I am acquainted with 

 has given so accurate and pleasing an ac- 

 count of the manners and habits of the 

 goat-sucker as Mr. White, taken entirely 

 from his own observations. Its being a 

 nocturnal bird, has prevented my having 



