ing but rocks or cathedrals serving it
for nest. In France, seen only near the Alps; in Spain, among the
mountains of Aragon. "Almost every person who has had an opportunity of
observing this bird speaks in terms of admiration of its vast powers of
flight; it is not surprising, therefore, that an individual should now
and then wing its way across the Channel to the British Islands, and
roam over our meads and fields until it is shot." (G.) It is, I
believe, the swallow of the Bible,--abundant, though only a summer
migrant, in the Holy Land. I have never seen it, that I know of, nor
thought of it in the lecture on the Swallow; but give here the complete
series of Hirundines, of which some notice may incidentally afterwards
occur in the text.

VII.

147. NOCTUA EUROPAEA. NIGHT-JAR OF EUROPE.

Caprimulgus Europaeus. L.
L'Engoulevent. F. (Crapaud-volant, popular.)
Geissmelcher.--Nacht-schade. T.
Covaterra. I.
Caprimulgus Europaeus. G. and Y.
Night-jar. B.

Dorrhawk and Fern-owl, also given by Bewick, are the most beautiful
English names for this bird; but as it is really neither a hawk nor an
owl, though much mingled in its manners of both, I keep the usual one,
Night-jar, euphonious for Night-Churr, from its continuous note like
the sound of a spinning wheel. The idea of its sucking goats, or any
other milky creature, has long been set at rest; and science,
intolerant of legends in which there is any use or beauty, cannot be
allowed to ratify in its dog or pig-Latin those which are eternally
vulgar and profitless. I had first thought of calling it Hirundo
Nocturna; but this would be too broad massing; for although the
creature is more swallow than owl, living wholly on insects, it must be
properly held as a distinct species from both. Owls cannot gape like
constrictors; nor have swallows whiskers or beards, or combs to keep
both in order with, on their middle toes. This bird's cat-like bristles
at the base of the beak connect it with the bearded Toucans, and so
also the toothed mandibles of the American cave-dwelling variety. I
shall not want the word Noctua for the owls themselves, and it is a
pretty and simple one for this tribe, enabling the local epithet
'European,' and other necessary ones, of varieties, to be retained for
the second or specific term. Nacht-schade, Night-_loss_, the popular
German name, perhaps really still refers to this supposed nocturnal
thieving; or may have fallen euphonious from Nac