. The Saturday magazine . nests of the Nightjar, or rather the places inwhich it lays its eggs, are small holes at the foot oftrees, or even sometimes on the naked ground ; it isamong our latest spring visiters, and does not makeits appearance till the latter end of May. The chieffood of the Nightjar consists of beetles, and otherlarge insects. The Rev. Mr. White, from whose works we havealready made such frequent quotations, says, speak-ing of this bird,— A Fern Owl this evening (August27,), showed oflF in a very unusual and entertainingmanner, by hawking round the circumference of mygreat sp
. The Saturday magazine . nests of the Nightjar, or rather the places inwhich it lays its eggs, are small holes at the foot oftrees, or even sometimes on the naked ground ; it isamong our latest spring visiters, and does not makeits appearance till the latter end of May. The chieffood of the Nightjar consists of beetles, and otherlarge insects. The Rev. Mr. White, from whose works we havealready made such frequent quotations, says, speak-ing of this bird,— A Fern Owl this evening (August27,), showed oflF in a very unusual and entertainingmanner, by hawking round the circumference of mygreat spreading oak, for twenty times following,keeping mostly close to the grass, but occasionallyglancing up among the boughs of the tree. Thisamusing bird was then in pursuit of a brood of someparticular Phalcena (moth) belonging to the oak, andexhibited on the occasion a command of wing, supe-rior I think to the swallow itself. When a person approaches the haunts of the FernOwls in an evening, they continue flying round the. TU« r£RN OWL. head of the intruder, and by striking their wingstogether above their backs, in the manner that pigeonscalled Twisters are known to do, make a smart at that time they are jealous of their young,and their noise and gesture are intended by way ofmenace. Fern Owls have attachment to oaks, nodoubt on account of food, for the next evening wesaw one again, several times, among the boughs ofthe same tree, but it did not skim round its stemover the grass, as on the evening before. In May,these birds find the Scaraba-us melolontha (the com-mon Cockchafer) on the oak, and the Melolonthasolstitialis (the July Chafer) at Midsummer. Thesepeculiar birds can only be watched and observedfor two hours in the twenty-four, and then in adubious twilight, an hour after sunset, and an hourbefore sunrise. EDMUND SPENSER, THE EARLY ENGLISH POET.
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