Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1889-11-08
BRITISH NIGHT-SINGER
The Various Notes of the Woods and
Fields.

The Various Notes of the Woods and
Fields.
From the London SPECTATOR
Almost any bird heard singing at night is
popularly set down as a nightingale. This
shows deplorable want of knowledge of
British birds, for among them are quite
number of night-singers. Besides these
there are others which are active and asser-
tive through the hours of darkness, and
which make the woods resound with their
crying and calling.
Standing in one of the rides of wood
land glade just as day is departing, one is
pierced and thrilled by perfect storm OF
song. This loud swelling volume of sound
softsns as the darkness deepens, and then
only the polyglot wood-thrush is heard.
The stem of the silver birch has ceased to
vibrats to the blackbird's whistle, and as
darkness comes a new set of sounds take
possession of the night. Crake answers
crake from the long grass, wood"owls boot
and herons scream. One of the greatest
night-helps to the gsme-kseper in staying
the depredations of poachers 10 the lapwing.
1t is the lightest sleeper of the fields, start
ing up from the failows and screaming upon
lection of this bird and the keeper closely
follows it's cry. A hare rushing wildly past
will put the plovsr away from its roost; and
when hares act thus In the darkness there is
generally some good cause for it. The sky
lark and woodlark are both occasional night
singers, and it is quite common to hear ouo-
koos calling in the densest darkness.
One of the essentially night,singers is the
little grasshopper warbler. Shy and retiring
IN Il b;ta IL ia rare1v found far aistant
from aquatic vegetation. Moist situations
are most congenial, as among the plants that
Affect them it fnds It's winged food. Al
though generally affecting such spots as In
dicated, it sometimes seeks out considerable
elevations These are covered with coarse
grass, bents, furzs and heather; and here
far into the night. 1t reels outfits continuous
ericket-iike song. 1t returns to the same
spot year after year, and although from these
! the particular notes may often be heard, the
| singer itself Is nowhere to be seen. At the
| least noise it drops from the support from
which 1t may be depending into the grass be-
meath and then Is silent. The song IL long
continued, but the sounds are constantly
shifting, marking the restless track of The
| singer on the night. It needs no stretch o1
| imagination to detect In the notes of this
| species the similarity to the grasshopper, and
tho "monotonous whirr, like the spinning OF
a. ishing-rsel," is fairly expressible of ths
birds song. A perfect master of intricate
maze and covert, it is never far from them
| Even though it has ventured beyond its ac
czstomed limits, Its vigilance sends IL bacl
at the least noise, though Its retreat is rarel!
observed, for, instead of flying, 1t creep
slowly, never rising when alarmed.
The peculiarly wild whistle of the curlev
comes from out the night sky, and the swift
screech for an hour after the darkness ha
| fallen. But perhaps the most interesting o
the night birds is the goatsueker or nightjar
We are by the covert side and astrange ehur
ring sound comes from the glades. Waiting
silently beneath the bushes, 1t approache
nearer and nearer until q loud Tapping
heard among the nut-bush tops. The objec
approaches quite closely, and it is seen tha
the noise IL produced by large bird strik
ing its wings together as they meet behind
Even in the darkness it may be detected ths
each wing is crossed by definite white bal
Had we the bird in our hand we should se
that it was connecting link between tn
owls and the swallows, having the soft pit
mage and noiseless fight of the one and th
wide cape Of the other. The object Of th
noise II produces among the trees is probabl
to disturb from the bushes the large nigh
flying moths upon which 1t feeds. tt
name of goatsuoker the bird has from 8,
perstitious notion that 1t sucks goats an
, cows-founded probably upon the fact of i
wide gape. It is certain that these bift