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For some time time I have been lucky enough to see some Tawny Frogmouths on the property where I live in Littlehampton. Sometimes in summer and sometimes in Spring. Their camouflage, especially in summer is amazing.
Tawny Frogmouths are often confused with owls but are actually more closely related to the nightjars.
Masters of disguise, during the day they can be perched on a tree limb and stay incredibly still. In summer they appear almost robotic in appearance. As nocturnal birds they will hunt at night.

A book I have always skimmed through is 'Gibbons Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' published by Bison Books Ltd in 1979 and again in 1990 & 1993.
In chapter 2 'Of the union and internal prosperity of the Roman Empire in the Age of the Antonines' there is a paragraph that has always stuck in my mind.
 ''... it was scarcely possible that the eyes of contemporaries should discover in the public felicity the latent causes of decay and corruption.

A book I have enjoyed very much is 'The Cape Horn Breed' which was written by William H. S. Jones and first published in 1956 and then re published in 1999 by Australian Print Group. It relates the experiences of Mr Jones as an apprentice in sail on a Full-rigged sailing ship.
Extract from 'The Roaring Forties'