NIGHTJAR. 
385 
The croaking’ of the Nighting-ale in June and the end of May,” says 
Knapp, is not occasioned by the loss of voice, hut 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 hanks 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 Europ^Bus^ Rennie.) 
* Caprimulgus europseus, 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, 
Tasscbenb. 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, Vdg. 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’sBr. Birds, 3. t. 127. — Mont. Orn Diet. — 76. Supp. — P?dt. 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- 
