76 
MR. J. H. GURNEY, JUN., ON THE NIGHTJAR. 
powers of a young one in confinement, it is probable that they 
sometimes move without any help. On one occasion my friend 
Mr. Norgate saw a Nightjar apparently carrying a young one 
in its mouth. It is said that they also sometimes move their eggs 
(‘Zoologist,’ 1884, p. 89), but I never knew one moved though 
handled again and again ; but the experience of others may 
be different. 
A favourite place for the eggs is under a young Silver Fir tree, 
six or eight feet high ; but sometimes they are laid under the 
shade of tall Bracken ; sometimes under an Elder bush, or an 
Ilex ; and sometimes by the side of a path with no shelter ; or in 
an open glade in a Fir-wood, amongst rough herbage or heather. 
When the young are hatched, the position of the old Nightjar 
in covering them is somewhat ungainly, as appears from the 
annexed cut (Fig. 2). The young are not to be seen, and even 
after they have become a good size she usually so effectually 
covers them that they are quite invisible. The cock seldom takes 
any part in incubation, but is sometimes asleep not far off. Once, 
in July, an advanced young one was observed to be covered by 
the cock, and the hen was nowhere visible. 
