All rights reserved.'] [February, 1909. 



BIRD NOTES: 



THE 



JOURNAL OF THE FOREIGN BIRD CLUB. 



£be IFMgbtjar in Captivity). 



(Caprimiilgns europa^ua). 

 By P. F. M. Gai,i,owav. 



This species is one of the quaintest of our native birds ami also one 

 of the most interesting and in captivity is very uncommon, yet properly 

 managed it soon becomes very tame. 



The Nightjar is one of those birds that must be taken young and 

 reared by hand, if it is ever to become really tame in a cage ; for if caught 

 when adult and caged, within about a month there would be but few feathers 

 left on its body, and the bird a miserable object to look upon; even if it 

 lived so long, which I am much inclined to doubt. 



The feathers, especially those on the breast and back, seem to hang 

 iu the skin quite loosely, so that if the bird is handled audit should struggle 

 the feathers fall out as fast as they do from a Wood Pigeon under similar 

 conditions. 



The whole plumage is very soft and downy, of somewhat sombre hue, 

 yet there is something very beautiful in the exquisite pencilling and 

 various tints of grey, brown, buff and black which adorn the garment of 

 this quietly yet chastely clad species ! The artist who is fond of producing 

 a good picture with but a few colours on his palette can find no better sub- 

 ject for his brush than the Nightjar or Wryneck. The eye of the Nightjar 

 is very large, being when wide open about the size of the top of a lady's 

 large' hat pin ; the mouth is enormous, and if a person should miss putting 

 food into the mouth of a young Nightjar then I certainly should not advise 

 that person to try hand-feeding a Golden-crested Wren. The inside of the 

 mouth is extraordinary, the skin of the lower half is very thin, the tongue 

 unusually small for the size of the bird, is heart shaped and lies quite flat 

 upon it ; one might naturally draw the inference that the construction of 

 the mouth denoted that its food consisted solely of small flies, moths and 

 Other winged insects of a soft nature; vet they readily eat in addition to 

 these, cockchafers, dorbeetles and possibly other night flying species ; the 

 indigestible portions being ejected from the mouth in the form of pellets, 

 as in the .Shrikes. 



To talk of a Nightjar or .Swallow as a cage bird even a few years ago, 

 would have been considered almost an impossibility, if it were not also 



