THE BIRDS OF SINGAPORE ISLAND 
until dusk hiding during the day in bushes in cool shady places. 
It is usually seen alone although as it is a common species 
several can sometimes be heard within a short distance of each 
other, 
[ It hides during the day and appears as evening falls flying 
silently to and fro and wheeling round the tops of shrubs and 
bushes after cockchafers and other insects on which it feeds 
and which it captures in its capacious mouth. It is often 
mistaken for an owh It is common in the Botanical Gardens 
and indeed all over the island and when niotoring^ at night one 
frequently flushes a bird which has been sitting in the sandy 
road probably enjoying a dust bath and scared by the dazzling 
head-lights just flits into darkness and safety. 
It is best known, however, for its extraordinary cry which 
sounds tike a stone thrown over a pond of jce or a person 
hitttng a hard ]jiece of timber with a stick: this noise is 
repeated with monotonous regularity— five times, pause, six 
times pause — ten times, pause antl so forth— and on a hot damp 
night with half a do^en in fult cry all round the house, the 
performance is somewhat tedious and annoying. It is said that 
the record ''break" known is ninety-nuie! When engaged 
in this vocal exercise — it can hardly be called music — the bird 
stands on a branch ; which is cltUched by the feet one in front 
of the other and not side by side as a fowl or sparrow holds 
to its perch : and if one moves carefully it is then quite easy 
to get within a few feet of the burong tukan kayu (i.e. caqienter 
bird) as the Malays call it. The note is usually written onoma- 
topoeical ly ' *tock-tock-tock ' ' . 
The nightjars lay two eggs on the ground in a slight 
hollow; these are so coloured as to assimilate to the surround- 
ing soil and are difficult to find : two pebbles of equal size being 
side by side should be looked for. 
Nightjars have the inner side of the middle toe nail serrated 
like a comb: so have pelicans, some of the bitterns and a few 
owls: the object may be to clean the stiff bristles, which lie 
about the mouth of the nightjar from bits of scale and debri<i 
of insects which impinge on the bird*s face as it catches 
them.— T. A. S. B.]. 
[142] 
