bird flies after her, passes her, settles somewhere near, and "churrs." Bird on stump flies down almost directly to chicks, and feeds them as usual. She is careful, as it seems to me, to feed both, and not one only. The light-coloured chick is very greedy, but she dodged his importunate bill some half a dozen times and fed the other. During feeding the other bird flew by.
9 o'clock.—Lighter bird flies off. The two birds (as I think them to be) now together circle near about in the air. A bird settles somewhere close by on the ground, then rises and flies off with the "choo-oo-oo-oo" note, and clapping the wings repeatedly. Then settles (probably the same) somewhere near, and continues to "churr."
9.6.—The lighter bird circles round, making the most astonishing twists and zigzags in the air, and certainly seeming to pursue insects. I can see no insects, though I should certainly see anything like a cockchafer or fair-sized moth. Again she flies by, near, doing the same. My theory is that the bird engulphs numerous minute insects (much as a Whale does Infusoria), and disgorges them into the chick's mouth as a pulp.[1] Several times during this the male bird (as I take it to be) has sat near churring, then rising with "choo-oo-oo-oo," and clapping of wings.
9.15.—Hen bird flies up, uttering a note like "chug chug chug," and settles on stump. Has nothing in beak that I can see. If she had anything, perhaps she would be less likely to utter a note; but this must go for nothing, as I have observed that small birds (Redstarts) bring food in their bills, yet make a plaintive cry in neighbourhood of the nest. In a minute she flies down and feeds the chicks. One (the lighter one probably)
- ↑ It is true that I never observed the bird flying with its mouth open, but neither did I ever observe it open its mouth during those astonishing twists and twirls (presumably after insects). The beak need not be widely opened for many minute insects to be swallowed whilst sailing through a strata of such, nor need it be continuously opened. The Nightjar, it must be remembered, flies and feeds by night, when it is both dark and people are in bed. Still, I find in Seebohm's 'History of British Birds' the following: "The bird has been said to hunt for its food with its large mouth wide open, but this is certainly an error." The first part of the sentence impresses me more than the last. Why has the bird its tremendous bristle-fringed gape? Other birds catch individual insects as cleverly without it.
