MR. J. H. GURNEY, JUN., ON TIIE NIGHTJAR. 
7:5 
vir. 
TIIE NIGHTJAR ( CA PRIMULG US EUROP.€US). 
By J. I T. Gurney, .lux., F.L.S. 
Read 28th January, 1S90. 
The Nightjar is a common bird in Norfolk, and one which lends 
itself to study. Often will the student of Nature marvel as its 
weird form silently Hits past on a summer’s evening, familiar 
though the sight may be, in chase of the large insects on which 
this harmless and beneficial bird preys. At such times it is often 
very heedless of man ; indeed, it has been known, probably in 
a fog, to hover round the electric lamps of a town, or the blast 
furnaces of iron mines in Staffordshire until shot down by the 
ignorant pitmen, who, it is on record, once actually killed twenty-one 
and wounded others (‘Land and Water,’ September 13th, 1873). 
Of course such a needless destruction of life is to be deplored, but 
the congregating of so many together, attracted by the light, is 
very curious. 
Sir Thomas Browne twice alludes to the Nightjar as a Norfolk 
bird, under the name of the “ Dorhauk ” (Wilkin’s edition, voL i. 
p. 397 ; vol. iv. p. 322), and says that he opened many to see 
what they fed on. So, in 1G63, when he is supposed to have 
written his list of Norfolk birds, they were evidently as common as 
now; but it is rather odd that he adds he never found “anything 
considerable in their maws.” I have found as many as thirty 
Moths, or their remains at any rate, and four great Beetles in 
