Picarian Birds. 
97 
THE NIGHTJARS. 
Sub-Order 
CAPRIMULGI. 
feather itself. The colour is brown, with a gloss of green or steel-blue on the 
black wings and tail, and the throat is conspicuously white. The bird breeds in 
Central and Eastern Siberia, and winters in Australia. It has been procured in 
England on two occasions, once near Colchester, and again near Ringwood in Hamp- 
shire. It nests in the mountains, and resembles the other Swifts in its habits, but 
is of course a much more powerful bird, and one of the fastest fliers in existence. 
It is often seen in large flocks on migration. 
Like the Swifts, the Nightjars have a very wide gape, but 
the latter is also equipped with some very strong bristles, the 
use of which is still doubtful. They have been associated by 
many writers with the Owls, probably on account of their 
soft and Owl-like plumage, and also because, like the Striges, they have the habit 
of coming out in the gloaming to seek for their food. There is, however, scarcely any 
relationship to be traced between them and the Owls, and the nearest allies of the 
Nightjars among our British birds are certainly the Swifts, but even here there are 
differences between the two groups. Between the harsh body-feathering of the Swifts 
and the soft mottled plumage of the Nightjars, there is a striking divergence, and 
the latter birds mostly lay distinctly marbled eggs on the ground, without an 
attempt at a nest, and have, moreover, downy young, whereas the Swifts lay white 
eggs under the shelter of a roof or other substantial covering and the young are 
hatched naked. 
The true Nightjars ( Caprimulgidce ) are of nearly wide-world distribution, 
and are represented in Great Britain by a single species which visits our islands 
regularly in summer, while two other species are occasional visitors. The true 
Nightjars, or ‘ Goat-suckers ’ as they are often familiarly called, have a pectinated 
middle claw; that is to say, the edge of it is toothed like a comb. 
Our Nightjar is found over the greater part of Europe 
in summer, and extends into Western Siberia, its winter home 
being in South Africa. Its densely mottled plumage is 
impossible to describe in detail, but it can be distinguished from 
the other European Goat-suckers by the absence of the rufous collar, and by having 
a white spot on the inner web of the three outer primary quills, and by the large 
white spot at the end of the tail-feathers. These white spots are represented in the 
female by spots of ochreous buff. 
The Nightjar is crepuscular in its habits, that is to say, it is a bird of the 
twilight, and it is only when disturbed that it ventures to fly in the day-time. In 
the evening its unmistakable churring note is heard in heathy districts or near open 
forest-land, and this peculiar note is generally uttered when the bird is sitting 
lengthwise along a branch ; for, unlike most birds, the Nightjar never perches on 
a branch transversely, but always along the surface of the latter. Its food consists 
entirely of moths and other insects, and when rising from the ground, or when 
7 
THE COMMON 
NIGHTJAR. 
(Caprimulgus europaus.) 
