ˈnightjar
[f. night n. + jar n.1]
1. A common nocturnal bird, Caprimulgus europæus (see goatsucker), so called from the peculiar whirring noise, something like that of a large spinning wheel, which the male makes during the period of incubation.
Similar names are night-churr (cf. Norw. dial. nattekörre, -kurre); eve-churr or -jar; churn-, churr-, and jar-owl.
| 1630 May Contin. Lucan vii. 470 Ill boding Owles, Night⁓iarrs, and Rauens with wide-stretched throats. 1783 Latham Gen. Synopsis Birds II. 593 Dorr Hawk, Night Jarr, or Night Hawk. 1802 Montagu Ornith. Dict. (1831) 337 The Nightjar is most plentiful in the wild tracts of uncultivated land. 1859 Meredith R. Feverel xx, The night-jar spinning on the pine-branch. 1888 Mrs. H. Ward R. Elsmere 557 Suddenly they heard the purring sound of the night-jar. |
2. Applied to other birds, esp. those belonging to species of Caprimulgus or to related genera.
| 1712 Morton Northampt. 424 The Butcher-Bird..breeds sometimes in Northamptonshire, and particularly in Whittlewood Forest, where 'tis called the Night-Jarr. 1840 Penny Cycl. XVI. 228/2 Scotornis climaturus, African Long-tailed Night-Jar. Ibid. 229/1 Macrodipteryx Africanus, Pennant-winged Night-Jar, or Long-shafted Goatsucker. 1894 Newton Dict. Birds 640 A second species of Nightjar, C. ruficollis,..is a summer visitant to the south-western parts of Europe. 1899 E. J. Chapman Drama Two Lives 67 The nightjars wake their vesper note. |