THE BIRDS OF SINGAPORE ISLAND 
Field Notes: — To see this niglitjar, so very different in 
general behaviour from the "toek-tock bird", take a car to the 
Mandai Road, halt against the open ground on the sotith of 
the road and wait till the light fails. Then if you are lucky 
you will hear a pleasant, dear and very distinctly trisyllabic 
note far away, a long distance above your head. Perhaps 
glancing upwards you will not be able to locate the bird and 
the note will sound from another direction and soon perhaps 
several, even a dozen of these nightjars, will be seen all in 
sight at once, circling and wheeling in a wonderful manner in 
the air. They will not come very near to you like C. macronrus 
but from the typical behaviour outlined above there is no 
mistaking the bird, 
Oiker habits: —Vgyj little has been recorded of the habits 
of this nightjar. Mr. Jacobson of Sumatra is worth quoting, 
** Contents of stomach green Pentaiomldwy crickets, beetles, 
flying tennites and other insects. These birds leave the forest, 
where they hide during the day at 6 p.m. exactly. Usually 
flying very high they follow a valley or seek their feeding 
places, uttering all the time their call note r'tcet-a-bu" or 
'*tap-ti-bau") which can be heard at a great distance. 
"Then they descend to a lower level where they can expect 
a good catch, e.g.y above a Hcefield. etc. Here they flit to and 
fro and half an hour later they return to their hiding places, 
their crops being chockful of insects. Sometimes they retuni 
again in the morning at daybreak, 
''Their flight is very peculiar and quite 'different from 
any other birds I know, very irregular and with many zigzags, 
from time to time they raise their wings so that they form a 
right angle and hold them so motionless for some time as 
they glide through the air. 
"Suddenly they interrupt their flight by jerky crochets and 
turns, making it very difficult to hit them, although the smallest 
size of shot will bring them down, just like snipe. 
"At Balum T observed every evening some thirty birds 
coming down the valley, they were so regular in the coming 
and going that I used to set my watch by them. In the time 
of the Mohamedan fasting the villagers, who possess no 
watches, know bv the i>rriva! of the binls that it is time to break 
their fast." 
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