“ Fern-Owl” in turnip-fields far away from its accustomed
abiding places. The food of this species consists
chiefly, if not entirely, of night-flying insects taken in the
air. During the daytime the Nightjar remains dozing,
generally, in my experience, on the ground, very often
basking on bare sandy spots or flat ledges of rock, but
often also upon low horizontal boughs, upon which it
squats, as a sailor would say, “ fore and aft, or lengthways.
Soon after sunset in districts frequented by these
birds the air suddenly appears to be full of them, although
in reality there may not be more than two or three pairs
on win»- together; this illusion is produced by the marvellous
rapidity and silence of their flight, and their
continual twists and evolutions over some food-producing
spot, also, no doubt, in many cases by the active pursuit
of the moths disturbed by the observer in his evening
stroll.
I have mentioned the silence of the flight of this bird,
and in fact the actual aerial progression of the Nightjar
is as noiseless as that of the Owls; but in the case of
the present species is frequently varied by a curious
“ swishing ” sound when the bird suddenly turns; the
only vocal note that I have heard uttered by the Nightjar
whilst on wing is a sharp squeak, the well-known jarring
note being only produced, as I am fully convinced,
whilst the bird is on the ground or seated on a bough.
In common with many nocturnal bird-notes this remarkable
cry is most deceptive with regard to the locality
from which it proceeds; but, although not musical, it is
always a delightful memory to me, associated with calm
summer nights whose silence was only broken by it, the
call of the Corn-Crake, the music of the Nightingale,
and the occasional trill of the Grasshopper Warbler.
The Nightjar makes no nest, but generally deposits
its two eggs (which are, in my opinion, about the most
beautiful of British productions of their kind) on a bare
spot amongst ferns, stunted heather, or brambles, not
uncommonly upon open wastes strewn with fragments of
flint and chalk, with barely any vegetation near the
breeding-place. I hope and believe that the advance of
education has eradicated the ancient superstition that
gave the name of Goatsucker to this bird, but to my own
personal knowledge it has been, and is still I fear, looked
upon by game-keepers as a bird of prey, called a Night
Hawk, and treated accordingly. I need hardly tell those
who have had patience enough to read this dissertation,
that the Nightjar is not only a perfectly harmless, but
also a most useful bird.