. Birds through the year . d suggests the full but calmer current of the ageing the cry of the corncrake to many ears, it does notbecome wearisome, because its monotony is never time to time the jarring is slightly changed in tone,like the distant sound of an autumn threshing-machine, whichit often recalls. In the stillness of the night the delicacy ofthese modulations is emphasised; they fascinate the ear bytheir slightness and the precision of their effect. THE LONELIER HOURS 165 In proportion to its gentle pitch the distance to whichthe sound will travel is remarka
. Birds through the year . d suggests the full but calmer current of the ageing the cry of the corncrake to many ears, it does notbecome wearisome, because its monotony is never time to time the jarring is slightly changed in tone,like the distant sound of an autumn threshing-machine, whichit often recalls. In the stillness of the night the delicacy ofthese modulations is emphasised; they fascinate the ear bytheir slightness and the precision of their effect. THE LONELIER HOURS 165 In proportion to its gentle pitch the distance to whichthe sound will travel is remarkable, but much energy mustgo to its utterance. Close observation in the early twilighthas shown the lower mandible of the bill intensely quiveringwhile the sound was being produced, and there is the samehint of force in Gilbert Whites record of how the Selbornesummer-house quivered when a nightjar perched and mur-mured on the roof. It seems clear that the song, like thesedge-warblers, is prolonged after the breeding season,. NIGHTJAR though nightjars are late nesters. Depending like swifts andflycatchers on a diet of summer insects, they do not arrivetill May, and their eggs are often to be found in the middleof June. In the earlier weeks of their stay, when the cocksare probably seeking their mates, a reduced half-whisperedjarring is sometimes to be heard uttered from the ground onferny commons and in the woods. The same tentativemurmur is sometimes heard early on a June morning a littlebefore sunrise, but the shades of evening and the early nightform the song-time for this nocturnal bird. It is rarer to see the nightjar hunting than churring,because of the increasing darkness; but it will sometimesreap a harvest of the little moths that buzz on warm even- i66 SUMMER ings round the crown of the oaks, and its flight can sometimesthen be watched against the half-lit sky. It is extremely-rapid and skilful, and the activity of its mazy motion isemphasised by its silence. The nightj
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectbirdspi, bookyear1922
