INSESSORES. 85 



and sometimes is even taken with the hand : when aroused, 

 it flies lazily off* with heavy flapping wings to a neighbour- 

 ing tree, and again resumes its slumbers until the approach 

 of evening, when it becomes as animated and active as it had 

 been previously dull and stupid. The stomach of one I dis- 

 sected induced me to believe that it does not usually captm'e 

 its prey while on the wing, or subsist upon nocturnal insects 

 alone, but that it is in the habit of creeping among the branches 

 in search of such as are in a state of repose. The power it pos- 

 sesses of shifting the position of the outer toe backwards, as 

 circumstances may require, is a very singular feature, and may 

 also tend to assist them in their progress among the branches. 

 A bird I shot at Yarrundi, in the middle of the night, had the 

 stomach filled with fresh-captured mantis and locusts {Phas- 

 mida and CicadcE;), which seldom move at night, and the latter 

 of which are generally resting against the upright boles of the 

 trees. In other specimens I found the remains of small 

 coleoptera, intermingled with the fibres of the roots of what 

 appeared to be a parasitic plant, such as would be found in 

 decayed and hollow trees. The whole contour of the bird 

 shows that it is not formed for extensive flight or for per- 

 forming those rapid evolutions that are necessary for the cap- 

 ture of its prey in the air, the wing being short and concave 

 in comparison with those of the true aerial Nightjars, and par- 

 ticularly with the Australian form to which I have given the 

 name of Eurostopodus. 



Of its mode of nidification I can speak with confidence, 

 having seen many pairs breeding during my rambles in the 

 woods. It makes a slightly-constructed flat nest of sticks 

 carelessly interwoven together, and placed at the fork of a 

 horizontal branch of sufficient size to ensure its safety ; the 

 trees most frequently chosen are the Eucalypti, but I have oc- 

 casionally seen the nest on an Apple-tree {^Angophora) or a 

 Swamp-Oak {Casuarina). In every instance one of the birds 

 was sitting on the eggs and the other perched on a neighbour- 



