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.
THE NIGHTJAR.
(Caprimulgus europæus.)
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 birds have 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 had been 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, on which he has bestowed the name Caprimulgus 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.