32 ox THE NIGHTJAR. 



X. — Francois Caucbe, in an account of his voyage, made in 1638, says that 

 he saw in Mauritins birds called Oiseaux de Nazaret, the description of which 

 pretty well answers to the I)odo, though apparently made from memory. 

 He says the egg was about the size of a half-penny roll. 



Xr. Sir H. Lestrange relates that about 1638, a live Dodo was exhibited 

 in London, which he saw and describes as being *^bigger than the largest 

 Turkey-cock."* 



XII. — A specimen of ^a Dodar' is enumerated in Tradescant's Catalogue 

 of his Collection of rarities, I606. The head and foot of this specimen are 

 preserved in the Ashmolean Museum, at Oxford. 



XIII. — A Dodo's leg, mentioned in a Catalc^ue of Rai-ities at the Music 

 House, St. Paul's Churchyard, 1665: now in the British Museum. 



XIV. — ^A Dodo's head at Copenhagen, (catalogued 1666,) still exists at 

 that place. 



XV. — The last mention of the Dodo is in July 1681, when the ship 

 Berkeley Castle put into the Mauritius, and the crew partook of Dodo's 

 flesh, "which/' says Benjamin Harvy, (chief mate,) ^'is very hard." 



EXTRACTS FROM MY DIARY ON THE 

 NIGHTJAR, OR, FERN OWL, (CAPRIMULGUS EUROPCEUS.) 



BY GKOROE R. TWINN, ESQ. • 



On Saturday Evening, May 7th., at twenty minutes before nine, I heard 

 a wild but subdued screaming noise, unlike that of the Owls, The twilight 

 was getting very heavy, so that from my window I could not discern the 

 birds well; they continued flying round the bottom of our fields and those 

 adjoining, for nearly ten minutes. The ci-y was very wild, and not that of 

 sorrovi, so it did not appear to me to proceed from Blackbirds that had been 

 startled and plundered; moreover the time was very unsuited for such an event; 

 and the nest of young Blackbirds was safe next morning, in our field. It 

 occurred to me, that it might proceed from the Nightjar; but I have no 

 authority for my supposition, as for upwards of ten years I have never met 

 with a specimen in our village. The screams were very expressive of calls, 

 and appeared the mutual sounds of two birds actuated by familiarity. I could 

 just trace th'e dusky flight of them. The following evening I watched but 

 beard »o repetition. — May 9th., 1853. 



As I have been seated by my window, reading or musing in the 

 twilight, between half-past eight and nine in the evening, I have several 

 times, during the past week, been very much amused with certain cries, 

 from a pair of birds, that I concluded were scouring the adjacent fields for 

 moths and insects: the cry of one was powerful — of a harsh ^craking' noise; 



* In a not«, a copy of the ^'Dodo Hook" is promised to any one who shall discover another 

 contemporary notine of this exhibition. 



