The only Swallow hitherto observed in Greenland—and that only on two occasions—is, according to Professor Reinhardt, the American Swallow,Hirundo rufaof Bonaparte. Now, Bonaparte identifies this (Geogr. and Comp. List, p. 9) withH. rufaof Gmelin, and Professor Baird considers Gmelin’s bird to be the South American species, for whichH. erythrogasterof Boddaert is the oldest name. If this identification be correct, one would certainly expect the bird found in Greenland to be the North American species,H. rufaof Vieillot, not Bonaparte, now generally better known by its older name,H. horreorumof Barton. The late Mr. Wheelwright observed the Common Swallow in Lapland, where he saw it hawking about over the high fells at Quickjock, and he fancied it was even commoner there than at Wermland, in Sweden, where it is also an annual summer visitant.[66]Throughout Europe generally, as already remarked, it is everywhere distributed insummer, and in the countries bordering the Mediterranean it is especially abundant at the periods of migration in spring and autumn. Mr. Wright has observed it arriving in Malta in great numbers from the south early in March, and again, on its return southwards in autumn, it is common over the island until October. On the island of Filfla, a few miles south of Malta, the same observer has noticed it in May. At Gibraltar and in Spain Mr. Howard Saunders has detected it as early as February, making its way north; and, as an instance of how these delicate birds at times get blown out of their course by adverse winds, it may be remarked that Prince Charles Bonaparte saw Swallows and Martins at sea 500 miles from Portugal and 400 miles off the coast of Africa. Sir William Jardine has recorded the presence of the Swallow at Madeira, and Mr. Osbert Salvin, writing on May 28 (“Ibis,” 1859, p. 334), says: “Some Swallows came on board when we were 180 miles north-west of the Azores, so that it is probable that the bird is found in these islands.”
On the Senegal River and at Sierra Leone it may be seen all the year round, but is less numerous there from June to September.[67]On the West Coast of Africa the Swallow appears to travel as far south as the island of St. Thomas on the equator, where Mr. Yarrell states it has been met with in January and February.
In Tangier and Eastern Morocco Mr. Tyrwhitt Drake says the Swallow is found throughout the year, but the Martin and Sand Martin, he believes, do not winter there. (“Ibis,” 1862, p. 425.)
The Swallow has been noticed as plentiful at Tripoli in the middle of March (Chambers, “Ibis,” 1867, p. 99), and Mr. Osbert Salvin observed it in Algeria, between Constantine and Batna, where he found several nests among the rafters of an open shed. According to the Rev. Canon Tristram—than whom there is no better authority on the subject of North African and Palestine birds—a few pairs of Swallows remain all the winter in each oasis in North Africa, whereverthere is water or marsh; but none of those which he observed were in mature plumage, and it is therefore presumed that only the younger and weaker birds stay behind. The Arabs informed him that for one Swallow they have in winter they have twenty in summer, and that they usually retire about the end of November, returning in February. In November, also, they have been observed to be common at Alexandria and Cairo (E. C. Taylor, “Ibis,” 1859, p. 47); and on the 5th of November, when leaving Aden, Mr. Swinhoe remarked that a few Swallows followed the ship, apparently bound for the Indian coast. According to the observations of Mr. E. C. Taylor (“Ibis,” 1867, p. 57), this species reappears in Egypt about March 25, and is common at Cairo and Damietta in April. Rüppell, in his “Systematische Uebersicht der Vögel Nordost-Afrika’s,” includes the Swallow (p. 22) as being found in Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia; and as regards the last-named country, Mr. Blanford has remarked[68]that it is common everywhere, and that he found it especially abundant on the shores of Annesley Bay in June.
Continuing a search for this species southward along the East Coast of Africa, it will be found that, according to the observations of Mr. Ayres in Natal, the Swallow arrives in that colony in great numbers in November, congregating and leaving again in March and April. Mr. Layard found it to be an annual winter visitant to the Cape Colony, and on one occasion when sailing from New Zealand to the Cape of Good Hope, on the 28th of November, he saw a Swallow and a Sand Martin fly about the ship for some time. He was then in lat. 33° 20′, long. 31° 50′, and about 290 miles from the Cape. Several insects (Libellula,Agrostis, andGeometra) were caught on deck, and we may presume, therefore, that the birds found sufficient food to support them at that distance from land.
Passing eastward through Sinai and Palestine, where Canon Tristram has observed the Swallowin December,[69]we learn from Mr. Blyth that it is common in the north-west provinces of India during the winter months. Capt. Beavan saw it at Darjeeling in 1862, and Maunbhoom in 1864-65, where both old and young were very common in January and February, hawking over rice-kates and near tanks. In Northern Japan it was observed by Capt. Blakiston, and in North China by Mr. Swinhoe. Referring to a species of Swallow which he observed in Formosa, Mr. Swinhoe says (“Ibis,” 1863, p. 255): “In its habits, in nest and colour of eggs, &c., this bird entirely agrees with the EuropeanH. rustica; yet in size it is always smaller, and in minor personal features different. It ranges in summer from Canton to Pekin, and Mr. Blyth assures me that it is identical with specimens procured in winter in Calcutta; hence I infer that the birds which visit China in spring, and uniformly leave again in autumn, return to hybernate in the warm plains of India.”
Mr. Blyth has remarked (“Ibis,” 1866, p. 336), “that the average of adult Swallows from the Indian region and China are smaller than the average of European examples, to the extent sometimes of an inch in length of wing; but some Indian are undistinguishable from European specimens.”
Dr. Jerdon, in his “Birds of India,” says: “On carefully comparing specimens from England and Algiers in the museum at Calcutta with Indian specimens from various parts of the country, I can detect no difference.”
In a notice of the birds of the Andaman Islands which appeared in the “Ibis” some years since, Capt. Beavan remarked that the European Chimney Swallow visits these islands at certain seasons, and is not at all uncommon.
There is no evidence that it ever visits Australia; but Mr. Gould has described a Swallow from Torres Straits under the nameHirundo fretensis, which is certainly very like our well-knownH. rustica, and might be a young bird of that species in autumn plumage. It issingular that no Swallows visit New Zealand. It cannot be that the islands are too distant from Australia, where several species of Swallow abound, because, as Mr. Layard has remarked, two, if not three, species of Cuckoo (Eudynamys taitensisandChrysococcyx lucidus) perform the journey in their annual migration twice a year.
The attachment of Swallows to the neighbourhood of water at roosting-time—which formerly led to the supposition that they actually retired under water for the winter—may be easily accounted for by the circumstance that the willow branches not only afford them most convenient perches, but enable the birds to crowd close together, and so secure greater warmth to individuals than they could possibly enjoy if each roosted upon a separate twig in trees or shrubs of different growth.
MARTIN
Although arriving in this country somewhat later than the Swallow, the Martin may be said to have nearly the same geographical range. Mr. Yarrell thought that the Swallow did not go so far north as the Martin,[70]but both are found in summer in Iceland and the Faroe Isles. Mr. Dann remarked that there was no want of food for them in Norway and Lapland, as the morasses in the sheltered valleys swarm with insects. During the season that it is absent from England it resides in North Africa, Egypt,Nubia and Abyssinia, Palestine, Arabia, and North-west India. Capt. Irby states (“Ibis,” 1861, p. 233) that it is common in the cold season in Oudh, and Col. Tickell observed great numbers at Moulmein; but they appeared from time to time, and not constantly, likeH. rustica.[71]With regard to Palestine, it seems probable that the Martin spends the greater portion of the year there, for Canon Tristram found it breeding in colonies on the sheltered faces of cliffs in the valleys of Northern Galilee. Mr. Wright says (“Ibis,” 1864, p. 57) that in Malta it is seen at the same seasons as the Swallow, but stays part of the winter, whenH. rusticahas departed. Dr. Giglioli observes that it arrives at Pisa at the end of March, at which time it has also been noticed at Gibraltar.
The movements of this bird and others of the genus have been concisely illustrated by Mr. Forster in a communication to the Linnæan Society, in the following table, giving the mean date of arrival:
The spring tide of migration appears to set in along the entire coast-line of the Mediterranean, and in a direction almost due north. I do not remember to have seen any record of the occurrence of the Martin on the west coast of Africa, although there seems to be no reason why it should not accompany the Swallow there in winter.
Both species will rear two broods in a season; and this fact, doubtless, will account for the prolonged stay in autumn of the later fledged birds, which are not sufficiently strong on the wing to join the main body of emigrants at the usual time of their departure.
SAND MARTIN
This little bird has a much more extensive range than either of the foregoing species, being found in the New as well as in the Old World. In British North America M. Bourgeau obtained both birds and eggs on the Saskatchewan plains. Dr. Coues met with it in Arizona, and Professor Baird has recorded it from California. He says: “It furnishes almost a solitary instance amongst land birds of the same species inhabiting both continents permanently, and not as an accidental or occasionalvisitor in either.”[72]Mr. H. E. Dresser found it common in Southern Texas, and Mr. O. Salvin obtained several specimens in Guatemala. It has even been met with in the Bermudas, 600 miles from Cape Hatteras, the nearest point of the North American coast.[73]
In Europe the Sand Martin generally makes its appearance in the spring somewhat earlier than any of the other Swallows, and departs sooner. From different stations on the Mediterranean large flocks have been observed at the period of the vernal migration winging their way northward, returning even in greater numbers in the autumn. Mr. O. Salvin saw this species between Tunis and Kef during the third week in March. Canon Tristram, who found it abundant in Palestine in the sandy banks of the Jordan, has suggested that it is double-brooded, since he found it nesting in Egypt in February. The same observer met with it in November on its autumn migration through the Sahara. Whenpassing down the Red Sea, early in November, Mr. Swinhoe saw numerous Sand Martins, which followed the ship for some days, and on arriving at his destination found these birds very common about the marshes at Takoo and before Tientsin in North China. Dr. Leith Adams says[74]that Sand Martins build in numbers along the banks of the Indus, and that in consequence in some places the banks are quite riddled with their holes. Hence it will be seen that this delicate little bird enjoys a more extensive range than any other species of the family.
Before leaving this country in autumn, they assemble in vast flocks, and go through a variety of evolutions on the wing, as if practising for a long flight, alighting from time to time upon the ground, or on willows or reeds by the river-side, to rest. Swallows and Martins do the same, but never congregate—so far as I have observed—in such large numbers.[75]
The Purple Martin (H. purpurea) of America is recorded to have been procured once at Kingstown near Dublin; and Yarrell included it in his “History of British Birds,” relying on a statement that two specimens had been shot at Kingsbury Reservoir, in Middlesex, in September, 1842. It has since been ascertained, however, that he was misinformed on the subject. A specimen of this bird, said to have been shot near Macclesfield, was sold at Stevens’s, with other birds from the Macclesfield Museum, on the 14th June, 1861, and realized twenty-eight shillings. With these exceptions, so far as I am aware, no other instance of its occurrence in Europe has been published.
Decorative glyph
COMMON SWIFT
To ordinary observers a Swift appears so much like a Swallow, that the only difference discernible by them is a difference of colour. To the inquiring naturalist, however, a much more important distinction presents itself in the peculiar and remarkable anatomy of the former bird. Not only has it a greater extent of wing, moved by larger and more powerful muscles, but the structure of the foot is curiously adapted for climbing within the narrow crevices which are usually selected as nesting-places. In the Swallow and otherHirundinesthe toes are long and slender—three in front and one behind in the same plane, as is usual with insessorialbirds. In the Swift we find the toes short and stout, and all four directed forwards; the least toe (which should be the hind one) consisting of a single bone, and the other three of only two bones apiece—a peculiar construction, but well adapted for the purposes for which the feet are employed.
This singularity of structure has induced naturalists to consider the Swifts (for there are several species) generically distinct from the Swallows; and the former, therefore, are now placed by common consent in the genusCypselus, a name adopted from Aristotle, and suggested by Illiger, as indicating the bird’s habit of hiding its nest in a hole.
The remarks which have been made upon food in the case of the Swallows, apply equally in the case of the Swifts. The latter have so frequently been observed in localities presenting very different species of insects, and sweeping in the summer evenings through the midst of little congregated parties of various kinds, that there is little doubt that the nature of the fooddiffers very considerably. In corroboration of this it has been shown that anglers have repeatedly captured these birds with artificial trout-flies of very different appearance.[76]Isaak Walton informs us that Swifts were in his time taken in Italy with rod and line; and, according to Washington Irving, one of the sports of the Alhambra was angling for swallows from its lofty towers.[77]There are several species of Swifts distributed throughout the world, but only two visit the British Islands, and of these one is but a rare and accidental visitant.
The Common Swift is the last of theHirundinesto arrive in this country, and the first to leave it. Its habits are very different from those of the Swallows. As a rule it makes no nest, but only lines a hole, into which it creeps; it lays but two eggs (rarely three), instead of five or six like the Swallows; it rears but one brood in the summer, instead of two, or even three, as Swallows often do. The late Mr. J.D. Salmon described[78]some nests of the Swift which he found at Stoke Ferry, Norfolk, and which were composed of bits of straw and dry grass, “closely interwoven and held firmly together by an adhesive substance very much resembling glue, and so disposed round the inner edge of the nest as to hold the straws in their places; the whole forming quite a cup of an oval shape, of about four inches in length, not very deep.” I have often observed the straw and dry grass, with the addition of feathers, but never noticed the “adhesive substance.” Gilbert White thought that the Swift paired on the wing. They may do so occasionally; but, from what I have observed, I feel sure that they pair much oftener in the hole which has been selected to nest in.
Although usually preferring lofty towers and church turrets, the Swift frequently nests under eaves at a comparatively short distance from the ground; and I have had excellent opportunitiesfor some years past of observing Swifts during the breeding season under the eaves of some old cottages in Sussex and Middlesex. By means of a short ladder I have been enabled to inspect many nests both before and after the young were hatched; and, out of a score or more examined, seldom more than one contained three eggs. Sometimes I observed that Sparrows were ejected and their nests appropriated, amidst much remonstrance and screaming; but, as a rule, I have found that Swifts, having once reared their young safely in a new locality, will return to the same hole year after year. Birds have been marked by having their claws cut, and, on being set at liberty, were caught the following year in the holes from which they had first been taken. Unlike most insectivorous birds, which bring but a single insect (or at most two or three) to the nest at a time, the Swift visits its young less frequently in the day, but brings a large store at each visit. The mouth is often so crammed with small black flies, that the bird presents the appearanceof having a pouch under the chin, from which it ejects the insects in a lump the size of a boy’s marble.
As a general rule, the Swift is not observed in this country before the third week in May, and is seldom seen after the third week in August. It is found throughout the mainland of the British Islands, and breeds also in Mull and Iona, but not in Orkney or Shetland, nor in the Outer Hebrides. It does not travel quite so far north as either the Chimney Swallow or the Martin, but the late Mr. Wolley saw it on the Faroes,[79]and Mr. Wheelwright frequently observed it hawking over the high fells at Quickjock, Lapland, during the summer.[80]
If we look for the bird during the months that it is absent from Great Britain, we find that it is very abundant at the Cape of Good Hope in winter, arriving about September 5, and departing northwards in April. It is seen inNatal more or less all the year round, but more plentifully during the summer.[81]The climate of Lower Egypt is apparently too cold for this species in winter, but at that season it is resident and abundant in Upper Egypt.[82]
As winter disappears it gradually moves northward, and a month before it arrives in England it is found in some numbers along the entire coast-line of the Mediterranean. Mr. Osbert Salvin saw it at Tunis on the 8th March, and subsequently numerous at Algiers. In the middle of March, Mr. Chambers found it plentiful at Tripoli, and at the end of the same month it was observed by Mr. Howard Saunders at Gibraltar. In the middle of April, Lord Lilford remarked that it was common in the neighbourhood of Madrid; about which time, according to Messrs. Elwes and Buckley (“Ibis,” 1870, p. 200), it usually makes its appearance in Turkey, arriving there doubtless from the Ionian Islands,[83]Egypt and Palestine, where it is said to appear in the last week of March.[84]
From Spain, through France, to England is but a short journey for a bird with powers of wing like the Swift; and hence one is not surprised to see hawking over the South Downs in May the birds which but a week previously were circling round the Moorish towers of Spain. Its return southward in autumn is apparently by the same route as that chosen for its northward journey in spring, and in this respect it differs in habit from many other species.[85]
In India its place is to a certain extent taken by a non-migratory species,Cypselus affinis, but it has nevertheless been met with in that country. An Indian specimen was received from Dr. Jerdon, presumably from the north-west.[86]It has also been forwarded from Afghanistan,[87]andDr. Stoliczka found it at Leh, in Western Thibet. I am aware that some naturalists have expressed doubts as to the identity of the Swift found at the Cape of Good Hope withCypselus apus; but, after an examination of several examples of the African bird, I have been unable to discover that it differs in any material respect from our well-known summer migrant.
So rare a visitant to this country is the Alpine Swift that not more than a score of individuals have been met with since the first specimen was captured in 1820. In that year a bird of this species was killed at Kingsgate, in the Isle of Thanet, during the month of June, and since that time the following examples are recorded to have been met with:—
One, Dover, Aug. 20, 1830; “Note-book of a Naturalist,” p. 226.
One, Buckenham, Norfolk, Oct. 13, 1831; Yarrell, “Hist. Brit. Birds,” vol. ii. p. 266.
One, Rathfarnham, near Dublin, March, 1833; “Dublin Penny Journal,” March, 1833. Yarrell, “Hist. Brit. Birds,” vol. ii. p. 266.
One, Saffron Walden, Essex, July, 1838; Macgillivray, “Hist. Brit. Birds,” iii. p. 613.
One, Leicester, Sept. 23, 1839; Macgillivray, “Hist. Brit. Birds,” iii. p. 613.
One, seen forty miles west of Land’s End, in June, 1842; Couch, “Cornish Fauna,” p. 147.
One, Cambridge, May, 1844; E. B. Fitton, “Zoologist,” 1845, p. 1191.
One, near Doneraile, co. Cork, June, 1844; Thompson, “Nat. Hist. Ireland” (Birds), vol. i. p. 418.
One, St. Leonard’s-on-Sea, Oct., 1851; Ellman, “Zoologist,” 1852, p. 3330.
One, Mylor, Cornwall, 1859; Bullimore, “Cornish Fauna,” p. 24.
One, Hulme, near Manchester, Oct. 18, 1863; Carter, “Zoologist,” 1863, p. 8846.
One seen at Kingsbury Reservoir, Aug., 1841,and one shot near Reading the next day; Harting, “Birds of Middlesex,” p. 128.
One, near Lough Neagh, May, 1866; Howard Saunders, “Zoologist,” 1866, p. 389.
One, near Weston-super-Mare; Cecil Smith, “Birds of Somersetshire,” p. 287.
Several seen, Isle of Arran, July, 1866; H. Blake Knox, “Zoologist,” 1866, p. 456.
Several seen, Achill Island; H. Blake Knox, “Zoologist,” 1866, p. 523.
One, near the Lizard, Cornwall; Rodd, “List of the Birds of Cornwall,” 2nd ed. p. 23.
One, Aldeburgh, Suffolk, Sept. 8, 1870; Hele, “The Field,” Sept. 17, 1870.
One seen, Colchester, June 8, 1871; Dr. Bree, “The Field,” June 17, 1871.
One seen, South Point, Durham, July 24, 1871; G. E. Crawhall, “The Field,” Aug. 5, 1871.
In all the above instances the birds were shot, except where stated to have been seen only.
The term “Alpine Swift” is unfortunately a misnomer, since the bird is in no way confinedto the immediate neighbourhood of the Alps. The name “White-bellied Swift” is not inappropriate, as indicating a peculiarity which distinguishes it from the common species. It is a migratory bird, like the last-named, and, like it, visits the Cape of Good Hope in winter, and penetrates into North-west India.
It is a summer migrant in Palestine, where Canon Tristram observed it nesting near Mar Saba, and in the tremendous ravine above the site of Jericho. It arrives at Constantinople from its winter quarters towards the end of April, and is common in Corfu from May to September, nesting annually in the Citadel Rock (Lord Lilford, “Ibis,” 1860, p. 234). It breeds in great numbers along the Etruscan coast, and is occasionally seen at Pisa (Dr. Giglioli, “Ibis,” 1865, pp. 51-52). It has been observed on passage in Tangier and Eastern Morocco, and Mr. O. Salvin remarked that it was common about the plains of the Salt Lake district, Eastern Atlas, and breeding in most of the rocks of that country (“Ibis,” 1859, p. 302).Mr. Howard Saunders saw hundreds at Gibraltar towards the end of March, and in June it was observed by Lord Lilford amongst the peaks of the Sierra near San Ildefonso. To England, as we have said, it rarely strays. In habits it is described, by those who have had opportunities for observing it, as resembling very much the Common Swift. Like this species, it nests in holes and crevices, and lays two white eggs of a similar shape to those of its congener, but much larger. Its cry is said to be very different. Its vastly superior size and white belly serve at all times to distinguish it from the smaller and more sable bird with which we are so familiar.
The Spine-tailed Swift (Acanthylis caudacutus), a bird which is found in Siberia, Persia, India, China, and Australia, has in one single instance been met with in the British Islands. A specimen was killed at Great Horkesley, near Colchester, on July 8, 1846, as recorded in the “Zoologist” for that year (p. 1492), and was fortunately examined in the flesh by Messrs. Yarrell, Fisher, Hall, Doubleday, and Newman.
NIGHTJAR
In order of date, the Nightjar is one of the latest of the summer birds to arrive, being seldom seen before the beginning of May, although, as in the case of other species, one now and then hears of an exceptionally early arrival. In 1872, for example, Mr. Gatcombe informed me that he had seen a Nightjar in the neighbourhood of Plymouth on the 10th of April, at least a month earlier than the usual time of its appearance. By the end of September, or the first week in October, these birdshave returned to their winter quarters in North Africa. Colonel Irby, in his recently-published volume on the “Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar,” states, on the authority of M. Favier, that Nightjars cross the Straits from Tangiers to Gibraltar in May and June, and return the same way between September and November. They have been seen on the passage. Dr. Drummond informed the late Mr. Thompson of Belfast,[88]that when H.M.S. “San Juan,” of which he was surgeon, was anchored near Gibraltar, in the spring of the year, a few Nightjars flew on board. During the passage of H.M.S. “Beacon” from Malta to the Morea, in the month of April, some of these birds appeared on the 27th, and alighted on the rigging. The vessel was then about fifty miles from Zante (the nearest land), and sixty west of the Morea.
They came singly, with one exception, when two appeared in company. A couple of them were shot in the afternoon. A few others hadbeen seen about the vessel on the two or three days preceding. On the evening of the 1st of June, two were killed and others seen in the once celebrated but now barren and uninhabited island of Delos.
The Nightjar, although tolerably dispersed throughout North Africa during certain months of the year, does not, apparently, travel so far down the east or west coasts as many of our summer migrants do. In Egypt and Nubia, according to Captain Shelley,[89]it is only met with as a bird of passage, but how much further south it goes he does not say. Mr. Blanford did not meet with it in Abyssinia, where its place seems to be taken by two or three allied species.[90]The same remark applies as we proceed eastward. In Syria and Palestine, Canon Tristram did not observe the European Nightjar, but found a smaller and lighter-coloured species, onwhich he has bestowed the nameCaprimulgus tamaricis.[91]
Between the months of April and October, our Nightjar is generally dispersed throughout the British Islands, even to the north of Caithness, extending also to the inner group of islands, but not reaching the Outer Hebrides. Mr. Robert Gray, of Glasgow, reports that it is not uncommon in Islay, Iona and Mull, and also in Skye, in all of which islands eggs have been found.
Stragglers have been observed in summer and autumn for several years in Shetland. The late Dr. Saxby saw it at Balta Sound about the end of July, skimming over the fields, and now and then alighting on the dykes, but he regarded its appearance in Shetland as merely accidental.
In Ireland this bird is considered to be a regular summer visitant to favourite localities in all quarters of the island, but of rare occurrence elsewhere.[92]
In colour this bird resembles a large moth, being most beautifully and delicately streaked and mottled with various shades of black, brown, grey, and buff, but in appearance it is not unlike a hawk, having long pointed wings more than seven inches in length, and a tail about five inches long. The male differs from the female in having a large heart-shaped spot upon the inner web of the first three quill feathers, and broad white tips to the two outer tail feathers on each side.
The mottled brown appearance of the bird when reposing either on the ground or on the limb of a large tree, is admirably adapted to screen it from observation even within a few yards of the observer. It delights in furzy commons, wild heathery tracts, and broken hilly ground covered with ferns, particularly in the neighbourhood of woods and thickets, and is especially partial to sandy soils. I have frequently seen this bird upon the bare sand, either in a sandpit or under the lee of a furze-bush, where it appeared to be basking in thesun, and from the disturbed appearance of the soil in some places, I imagine that it dusts itself as the Skylark does, to get rid of the small parasites with which, like many other birds, it is infested. On the 16th of May this year, at Uppark, Sussex, I found one asleep on the carriage drive within twenty yards of the house. The gravel was quite warm, and the bird was so loth to be disturbed that I almost succeeded in covering it with my hat before it took wing. On another occasion in September, when strolling along the beach near Selsea, I came suddenly upon a Nightjar sitting below high-water mark on the warm shingle, where it appeared to be thoroughly enjoying the afternoon sun. It dozes away the greater part of the day, and if disturbed only flies a short distance before re-alighting. Its loud and peculiar whirring note, reminding one of the noise made by a knife-grinder’s wheel, is never heard until the evening, when, in districts where the bird is common, it resounds far and near.
There is something occasionally quite ventriloquialin the sound, caused by the bird turning its head from side to side, both up and down, and scattering, as it were, the notes on every side.
It makes no nest, but scraping a hollow on the bare ground deposits two ellipse-shaped eggs beautifully mottled with two shades of grey and brown, and quite unlike those of any other British bird. The young are hatched in about a fortnight or rather more, and until fully fledged their appearance is singularly ugly. They are covered with a grey down, and their enormous mouths and large prominent eyes give them an expression which is almost repulsive. By pegging the young down with long “jesses,” as one would a Hawk, I have secured them until fully fledged, the old birds feeding them regularly; but on taking them home and turning them into an aviary I could not succeed in keeping them long alive, owing to the difficulty in procuring suitable food, and my inability to give them constant attention.
During the month of September, when shooting amongst low underwood and felled timber,I have not unfrequently disturbed a Nightjar, and on such occasions, when flying away startled, its flight so much resembles that of a Hawk that I have twice seen a keeper shoot one, exclaiming, “There goes a Hawk!” I was not a little surprised one day at finding one of these birds in the middle of a turnip-field. We had marked down some birds at the far end, and the dogs were drawing cautiously on when one of them flushed a Nightjar, which my friend immediately shot—in mistake, as he afterwards said, for a Woodcock.
Notwithstanding what has been said to the contrary, the Nightjar, Night-hawk, Fern Owl, or Goatsucker, as it is variously called in different parts of the country, is one of the most inoffensive birds imaginable. By farmers it is accused of robbing cows and goats of their milk, and by keepers it is remorselessly shot as “vermin;” but by both classes its character is much maligned. Its food is purely insectivorous, and it is as incapable of sucking milk as it is of carrying off and preyingupon young game birds. The mistake in the former case must have arisen in this way. The habits of the bird are crepuscular. It is seldom seen in broad daylight unless disturbed, but as soon as twilight supervenes and moths and dor-beetles begin to be upon the wing, it comes forth from its noonday retreat and is exceedingly busy and active in the pursuit of these and other insects. Montagu says he has observed as many as eight or ten on the wing together in the dusk of the evening, skimming over the surface of the ground in all directions, like Swallows in pursuit of insects. Cattle, as they graze in the evening, disturb numerous moths and flies, and the Nightjar, unalarmed by the animals, to whose presence it becomes accustomed, dashes boldly down to seize a moth which is hovering round their feet, or a fly which has settled upon the udder. Being detected in this act in the twilight by unobservant persons, the story has gone forth that the Goatsucker steals the milk.
From the keepers point of view it is a Night-hawkin the worst sense of the word, a hawk that under cover of the night flits noiselessly but rapidly by and carries off the unsuspecting chick. But here again the observer has been misled by appearances, associating the pointed wings and long tail with the idea of a hawk, entirely overlooking the small slender claws and mandibles, which are quite unequal to the task of holding and cutting up live and resisting feathered prey, and entirely also overlooking the fact that at the time the Nightjar is abroad, the young pheasants and partridges are safely brooded under their respective mothers.
Attentive observation of its habits, and examination of numerous specimens after death, have revealed the real nature of its food, which consists of moths, especiallyHepialus humuli,[93]which from its white colour is readily seen by the bird, fernchafers and dor-beetles. Macgillivraysays: “The substances which I have found in its stomach were remains of coleopterous insects of many species, some of them very large, asGeotrupes stercorarius, moths of great size also, and occasionally larvæ. I have seen the inner surface slightly bristled with the hairs of caterpillars, as in the Cuckoo.” He adds, “as no fragments of the hard parts of these insects ever occur in the intestine, it follows that the refuse is ejected by the mouth.” From its habit of capturing dor-beetles, the bird in some parts of the country is known as the Dor-hawk. Wordsworth has referred to it by this name in the lines—
“The busy Dor-hawk chases the white mothWith burring note.”
“The busy Dor-hawk chases the white moth
With burring note.”
Elsewhere it is called the Eve-jar, and Churn-owl. The latter name is bestowed by Gilbert White in his “Naturalist’s Summer Evening Walk”:—
“While o’er the cliff the awaken’d Churn-owl hung,Through the still gloom protracts his chattering song.”
“While o’er the cliff the awaken’d Churn-owl hung,
Through the still gloom protracts his chattering song.”
In his 37th Letter to Pennant, the same authorrefers to it as “theCaprimulgus, or Fern-owl,” and gives an agreeable account of its movements as observed by himself.
Amongst other things he says:—“But the circumstance that pleased me most was, that I saw it distinctly more than once put out its short leg while on the wing, and by a bend of the head deliver somewhat into its mouth. If it takes any part of its prey with its foot, as I have now the greatest reason to suppose, it does these chafers. I no longer wonder at the use of its middle toe, which is curiously furnished with a serrated claw.”
Yarrell has figured the foot, in a vignette to his work on British Birds, in order to show this peculiarity of structure, the use of which has puzzled so many.
The correctness of the view expressed by Gilbert White and confirmed by other authors,[94]has been disputed on the ground that many other birds, as Herons, Gannets, and, I mayadd, Coursers, have a pectinated claw upon the middle toe, and yet do not take insects upon the wing, or even seize their prey with their feet.
It has been ingeniously suggested that perhaps the serrated claw may be used for brushing away the broken wings and other fragments of struggling insects which doubtless adhere occasionally to the basirostral bristles with which the mouth of this bird is furnished. This is very possible; at the same time it may be observed that Hawks, Parrots, and other birds habitually cleanse the bill and sides of the gape with their feet, and yet have no pectination of the middle claw.
A theory advanced by Mr. Sterland,[95]and endorsed by Mr. Robert Gray,[96]is that since the Nightjar sitslengthwiseand notcrosswiseupon a bough, the serrated claw gives a secure foothold, which in so unusual a position could not be obtained by grasping. But to this theory the objection above made also applies, namely, that many birds, such as Coursers and Thick-knees,have serrated middle claws and yet are never seen to perch.
Some naturalists, and amongst others Bishop Stanley, have surmised that by means of its peculiarly-formed toes, the Nightjar is enabled to carry off its eggs, if disturbed, and place them in a securer spot, but should any such necessity arise, one would think that its large and capacious mouth, as in the case of the Cuckoo, would form the best and safest means of conveyance.
In the young Nightjar at first the peculiarity in question is not observable, and Macgillivray remarked that in a fully-fledged young bird shot early in September, the middle claw had only half the number of serrations which are usually discernible in the adult. He says:—“All birds whose middle claw is serrated have that claw elongated, and furnished with a very thin edge. It therefore appears that the serration is produced by the splitting of the edge of the claw after the bird has used it, but whether in consequence of pressure caused by standing or grasping can only be conjectured.” I have detected some confirmation of this in the caseof the common Thick-knee, or Stone Curlew,Œdicnemus crepitans, in some specimens of which I have remarked a very distinct serration of the middle claw, in others only the barest indication of it (the edge of the claw being very thin and elongated); in others again no trace of it.
The objections, however, which have been taken to the suggested use of the pectinated claw in the Nightjar, do not invalidate the statements which have been made by Gilbert White and other observers of the bird’s movements and habits, for the homologous structure which is found to exist in certain species in no way related to each other, may well be designed for very different functions.
I do not find in the works of either Macgillivray or Yarrell any mention made of the peculiar viscous saliva which is secreted by this bird, and which reminds one of what is observable in the case of the Wryneck and the different species of Woodpecker. It no doubt answers the same purpose, namely, to secure more easily the struggling insects upon which its existence depends.