THE NIGHTJAR, OR FERN OWL. 
581 
frightful. They are fed with insects by both the parent 
birds, but only in the twilight; these latter keep 
wheeling round the head of any enemy that may appear 
on the scene, in a paroxysm of terror. If there is a 
second brood the female usually only lays one egg. 
The Goatsucker is easily disabled, and if caught napping 
can be killed with a pellet from the blowpipe; otherwise 
they are usually shot while flying about in the evening. 
They have a curious habit of hovering in the air, if fired 
at and missed, thus giving the shooter an easy opportunity 
for using his second barrel with effect. Be it understood 
that such a useful creature is never shot but by naturalists, 
and not often by them. This bird is only caught by the 
merest chance, and indeed I know no way of doing so 
except at the nest; any way, it would be but a useless 
capture, for I have as yet never met with anyone who has 
succeeded in rearing the young birds, or in keeping the 
old ones long in confinement. In spite of its utility, this 
bird is, however, often shot by the ignorant, on account of 
the divers singular names it bears.* These could only have 
been given it after having had the bird alive in the hand, 
and examined it closely. That the Spaniards call this bird 
the “ Shepherd’s deceiver” is easily accounted for, inas¬ 
much as the shepherds are those who most often come 
across it, and probably once upon a time one of them was 
tempted to approach it cautiously and try to catch it, in 
which he signally failed, and was thus deceived, that is to 
say, if he ever thought to capture the bird while sitting, 
without knocking it down with either a stick or a stone. 
The name of “Father of wind” owes its origin to a 
* Besides the term Goatsucker, the Germans also call this bird by a variety of 
similar names, amongst which are the following:—“ Goat-,” “ Roe-,” and “ Child- 
milker;” “Cow-” and “Milk-sucker;” “Parson;” and “Witch:” all of these are 
evidently epithets of abuse, and not of endearment!— W. J. 
