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pitched rather high ; this lie kept up for some time, until fed for the night, 

 when lie was at this time placed ill his cage. 



When able to fly well I would let him out of the cage for a fly round 

 the room. I have done this ever since and he looks forward to the exercise : 

 he is allowed out on the wing for an hour each evening. He has always 

 heeu fed from the point of a hat pin ; he does not peck at the food, but runs 

 towards it with open mouth and. as it were, pulls it off the pin. When old 

 enough to pull the food off the feeding pin I tried to induce him to peck 

 his food up from the floor of his cage, hut although I tried every induce- 

 ment I could think of, it was all useless. 



I placed live moths or other insects in front of him on the floor ; he 

 appeared not to see them, in fact took no notice of these struggling insects, 

 but if it was picked up on the point of the feeding pin and lifted gradually 

 until it was level with the eye — the moment it was level with the eve 

 it would snap at and pull it off the pin instantly. I am inclined to 

 think that the eye of the species is so situated in the socket that thev are 

 unable to see anything underneath the bill and so the line of sight is 

 straight ahead and to the sides; for if a housefly approach my bird, when 

 he is sitting in his favourite position — length-ways on the door of my room — 

 as soon as the flv is level with his eye or anywherei above it, he squints 

 horribly at it, makes a dash and but seldom fails to make a capture; he 

 then returns immediately to his post, after the Flycatcher style ; his flight 

 is silent with very few exceptions. 



These birds require a roomy cage so that when flying down from their 

 perch (which should consist of a rough log, thick oak or elm, of about eight 

 inches in diameter) they are not so likely to strike their long wings agains 

 the back or front of cage. My Nightjar's cage measures 2h -f- ij -f- ih feet 

 high ; there is a false roof of soft string netting (half-inch mesh). The front 

 consists of a removable frame, over which string netting is stretched 

 moderately tight ; this prevents the bird injuring itself should it be sud- 

 denly startled : being soft the netting gives, thus preventing broken and 

 frayed plumage. The cage tray or drawer is f inch deep and kept covered 

 with about a \ inch of pine sawdust; the perch, a piece of rough oak bough 

 about ten inches long, is fixed to the back of the cage with a screw and 

 placed only five inches from the floor, so that the bird need not use its 

 wings to any extent in jumping down ; along the front rail of the cage I 

 have arranged a shelf two inches in width, the height of the shelf coming in 

 a line with the eye of the bird, and thus I have managed to get the bird to 

 feed itself. On the edge of the shelf I have placed a lot of ordinary pins 

 fixed in firmly, sloping from front towards the back of cage, the heads are 

 cut off leaving them projecting about one inch. 



Soft food " Life" is made up in small pellets and placed on the pins; 

 aiso cockroaches, mealworms, moths, grasshoppers, cockchafers, and any 

 insect that may be found according to the season. The bird at feeding 



