1883-92 
THE NIGHT-JAR 
255 
succeeded in finding a nightingale’s nest, though 
more than one pair annually rear their brood in 
the garden. On one of these occasions the nest 
was hidden near the base of a holly ; the soft, 
warm, nursing chamber was walled round by a 
ring of dead and shed holly leaves stuck upright 
with their margins overlapping each other. 
‘ Night-Jar, or Churn Owl {Caprimulgtts 
europceus ). — I owe an occasional sight and more 
frequent hearing of this strange bird to the ad- 
vantageous location of my garden and abode. 
Close to it begins a preserve, which extends along 
the eastern boundary of the park to near Roehamp- 
ton Gate. On one side of the preserve is the 
park with old oaks ; on the other side is the 
quietest and least frequented of commons, hight 
“ Pale-well,” from the spring of pure water rising 
therein. No cultivation is carried on outside the 
garden wall. Such are the conditions suitable to 
the night-jar’s singular habit of oviposition and 
hatching of the eggs, usually a pair, on the bare 
ground ; of nest-building the bird seems ignorant. 
She selects some bare spot with which her own 
colours so closely match that she is hard to 
recognise even when you are near, and she is so 
hardy that you may stand and contemplate her 
for some time, and may have to move a step or 
two nearer before she takes to flight. Since my 
first acquaintance I have never disturbed mother 
or eggs, but always quietly retired when I have 
