NIGHTJAR. 



335 



*" The croaking- of the Nightingale in June and the end of May," says 

 Knapp, " is not occasioned by the loss of voice, but by a change of note 

 — a change of object. His song ceases when his mate has hatched her 

 brood ; vigilance, anxiety, caution, now succeed to harmony, and his 

 croak is the hush, the warning of danger or suspicion, to the infant 

 charge and the mother bird." * This delightful songster is found very 

 generally diffused throughout Europe, as far north as Sweden, in the 

 greater part of Asia, and has also been found on the banks of the Nile. 

 Its favorite haunts are close thickets overgrown with brush and under- 

 wood ; there, in the calm of a summer's evening, he delights to 



" Warble his delicious notes, 

 As he were fearful that an April night 

 Would be too short for him to utter forth his love chant." 



Bechstein says, that the Nightingale has a strong predilection for the 

 spot where he has first taken up his abode, and will return year after 

 year to the same place, until the grove which gave him shelter has been 

 cut down, and even then he will choose another station as near to it as 

 possible. They generally return to Germany, from their annual mi- 

 gration, about the middle of April, about the time the hawthorn begins 

 to shew its blossoms, and again, about the middle of August, they pre- 

 pare for their departure ; this is done very quietly, and without noise 

 or confusion, passing on by degrees from thicket to thicket towards the 

 end of their journey, so that by the middle of September they are no 

 longer found in that country. In Italy they arrive in the month of 

 March, and begin to retire in the same way about the beginning of 

 November. 



NIGHTJAR (Nyctichelidon Europasus, Rennie.) 



* Caprimulgus europaeus, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 346. 1 — Faun. Suec. No. 274. — Gmel. 



Syst. 1. p. 1027 Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. p. 584. 5.—Raii, Syn. p. 26. A. 1 



Will. p. 70. t. 14. — Briss. 2. p. 470. 1. t. 44.— Caprimulgus* punctatus, Meyer, 

 Tasschenb. Deut. 1. p. 284.— L'Engoulevent, Buff. Ois. 6. p. 512.— Ib. pi. Enl. 

 193. — L'Engoulevent ordinaire, Temm. Man. d'Orn. Tagschlafer. — Bechst. Na- 

 turg. Deut. 3. p. 940. — Frisch, t. 100.— Geitemelker, Sepp. Nederl, Vog. 1. t. 

 p. 39. — Nocturnal Goatsucker, Br. Zool. 2. No. 173. t. 59. — European Goat- 

 sucker, Arct. Zool. 2. p. 437. A. — Will. (Angl.) p. 107.— Albin, 1. t. 10.— 



White's Hist. Selb. p. 62. 94.— Lath. Syn. 4. p. 593. 5 lb. Supp. p. 194.— 



Lewin's Br. Birds, 3. t. 127. — Mont. Orn Diet lb. Supp. — Pult. Cat. Dorset. 



p. 13.— Wale. Syn. 2. t. 255 Don. Br. Birds, 3. t. 67.— Nightjar, Bewick's 



Br. Birds, 1. p. t. 262,—Selby, pi. 42*. p. 136. 



Provincial. — Dor-Hawk. Fern-Owl. Night-Hawk. Jar-Owl. 



Churn-Owl. Wheel-bird.* 

 This species weighs between two and three ounces ; length full ten 

 inches. The bill is dusky and weak ; mouth excessively wide, fur- 



