themselves ; ultimately they hawk in the air, and, like their parents, perch lengthwise on the rugged 
branches of the trees. Under the stimulating influence of the abundance of food procurable at midsummer, 
they quickly attain size and strength, and by the end of August or beginning of September enter 
on their first travels to the “ unknoAvn land ” where their parents spent the previous winter, and which 
is doubtless Morocco. 
Independently of the British Islands, the Nightjar inhabits all tbe warmer and temperate portions of 
Europe; I believe it also frequents the whole of Africa, and ranges as far east as Aflghanistan. 
From the above remarks it will be seen that the Nightjar is plentifully diffused over nearly every part of 
Great Britain ; yet I venture to affirm that there is not one in a thousand persons who has ever observed it 
in a state of nature : they may have seen a skin or a mounted specimen in some museum ; and this is all 
the evidence they have of its being one of tbe birds of our island ; of its history, habits, and economy they 
are totally ignorant. It is the ornithologist, inspired by a love for nature and her works, who seeks out its 
whereabouts, silently watches its movements, and lends an earnest ear to its spinning, vibrating, or chirring 
notes, which, commencing precisely at the setting of the sun, are poured forth at intervals during the whole 
night. The pastor who rests him on yonder stile while returning from his visit to some sick parishioner, 
the village lad and lass whose evening walk has thoughtlessly led them far away, the cottager who takes a 
turn round his garden before retiring to his early rest, the watcher who seats himself under the hedge or 
in the glade of a copse, the stealthy poacher of the eggs of the Pheasant and other game birds, these are 
the persons who are acquainted with the Nightjar and its habits in a state of nature. 
May be the horse of the farmer, who is sleepily returning from the market-town, suddenly starts 
backward and throws his rider ; the cause is probably unknown, but it most likely was the Nightjar, 
which has abruptly risen from the road under the horse’s nose. Let not this trait in the habits 
of the bird be doubted ; for we know that it frequently squats in the road and pathway, and it is 
asserted that both rider and mule are in like manner often tumbled over the precljrlces in some of the more 
dangerous mountain-passes of South America by the sudden rising of the Hydropsalls psalurus, with its long 
whip-like tail. Superstitions of various kinds attach to most nocturnal birds, and our Nightjar forms 
no exception to the rule; for Mr. Smither informs me that the labouring classes round Chart, in Surrey, 
believe that it has the power of rendering any person annoying it “ puckeridge-struck,” and hence they have 
an objection to disturb either the bird or its eggs for fear of the consequences. Gilbert White mentions a 
similar superstition ; but in this case cattle, and not human beings, were supposed to be the objects of their 
malevolence. 
The male may always be recognized by the presence of a series of white spots on the wings and tail ; in 
all other respects the two sexes are alike in colour. 
The peculiar use of the pectinated claw of the middle toe has not yet been satisfactorily stated ; it has 
been supposed that it was intended as a means of clearing the vibrissae from any matters that might attach 
to them during the act of feeding ; but this cannot be the case, for the pectinations are so close to each 
other that the stout vibrissae could not possibly pass between them. The actual use of this pectinated claw 
must, I fear, remain for the present involved in obscurity. It is believed by some persons to be a means 
by which the bird rids Itself of certain parasites. 
The usual resting-place of the Nightjar during the day is on the ground, where it sleeps like other 
nocturnal birds, but from which it is easily disturbed, when it flies off to some other part of the vvood, and 
either settles again on the earth or lengthwise on some large branch of a tree. During the intervals of 
feeding, it perches on the tops of trees, on the summit of a heap of turf, a large stone, rail, or gate-post, 
where its chirring note, resembling the sound of a spinning-wheel, is constantly uttered from sundown 
until the shades of night are lost in the early dawn. While flying, it frequently claps its wings together over 
its head, thereby producing a sound very similar to the first flushing of a Woodcock. 
The throat of one of these birds which I examined was crammed with Xylophasia polyodon and one speci- 
men of the cream-coloured Tiger Moth {Arctia villicd), most of which were still alive, notwithstanding the 
bird had been dead two days. 
The eggs are oval in form, and always two in number, beautifully clouded and veined with bluish grey on 
a white ground; they are I inch and 2 lines long, by 10^ inches in breadth. 
The young are very easily reared, if taken at an early stage of their existence, by first cramming them 
with seraped beef, and afterwards supplying them with hard-boiled eggs, chopped fine, and insects ; they 
soon become very tame, run over the room with facility, and evince no desire to escape, unless a window be 
suddenly opened, when they are off in an instant. In this way a fine specimen was lost by my friend Dr. 
Gunther, after he had carefully reared it to the size of the mature bird. 
The Plate represents a male, a female, and two young’ ones a few days old, of the size of life. 
OSH 
