igib. BuRKiTT — 7lte Nightjar. 159 
on a quarter-inch branch. It seems to have Httle or no 
scent judging by its repeatedly singing and making all the 
other notes within a few feet (even two feet only) from me 
and returning again. 
While the female was hatching the consistent evening 
practice was as follows : — The male leaves the roost with 
a whistle (except when roosting at nest) and flies — not 
straight — towards the nest making intermittent whistles, 
the last ones being close to the nest. Then he goes out 
over the bog silently, I suppose to spy round, and in about 
a minute returns to near the nest and whistles there, and 
alights. The female then slips off to him, or in the earty 
sitting he goes right to the nest and escorts her off. They 
together then fly with whistling and wing clapping to 
some low dry turf bank or clamp which is a good distance 
away — about 150 yards, and there she preens herself and 
he will sing near. Later they return to nearer the nest 
ground and he will sing at favourite perches while she 
hunts. This habit of the pair alighting early at a distant 
spot misled me altogether as to the nesting site. In this 
case the nest was consistently located as at the end of the 
first set of whistles and the beginning of the second set. 
The same general practice of the male whistling up to the 
nest is followed after young are hatched. 
As to the usual nesting ground I am no authority. There 
were two pairs on this bog (just possibly three) and I got 
the two nests. The one I almost entirely watched was 
on uncut bog partly drained, within 20 yards of the un- 
drained bog and within 25 yards of turf spreading. It 
was on a bare two-foot spot in thin heather and Bog Myrtle. 
After a wet evening the eggs were in water ; the bird must 
have been sitting in water. 
The other nest was on the dry peat thrown up along the 
edge of a pioneer drain on the fringe of an undrained bog 
and 70 yards from turf cutters. Before finding the nests, 
I wasted a lot of time looking for them amongst scrub belt 
and tall Bracken. To an early nesting bird on or near turf 
banks the turf cutting must upset its plans as turf may be 
spread on fresh ground till July ist, er even a month later. 
The nest I watched was not laid up till July ist — the other 
was earlier. The farmers remembered a nest laid on a turf 
path, but of course deserted when traffic commenced. 
