ORDER PASSERES. 107 



feeblest degree of light suits it best. If it happen to be 

 disturbed and roused of a fine day, its flight is low and 

 uncertain. The reverse, however, is altogether the case after 

 the setting of the sun. It is then quite lively, and active in 

 its flight, which is necessarily irregular, like that of the 

 winged insects which constitute its prey, and which it can 

 only seize by short and rapid zigzags. 



It feeds on insects, especially those of the nocturnal kind, 

 as beetles, cockchafers, moths, &c. It will also eat wasps, 

 drones, &c. It has been observed, that this bird has no 

 occasion to close its bill to secure the insects, the interior 

 being provided with a kind of glue, which appears to come 

 from the upper part, and which is sufficient to retain 

 them. 



This bird has one habit peculiar to itself; it will make, 

 about one hundred times, in succession, the circuit of a large 

 leafless tree, with an irregular and very rapid flight. And 

 from time to time, it will drop abruptly down, as if to fall 

 upon its prey, and then suddenly rise again in the same 

 manner. At such times it is exceedingly difficult to bring it 

 within range of shot, for on the advance of the fowler, it 

 disappears so rapidly, that it is impossible to discover the 

 place of its retreat. 



An elegant and artificially constructed nest, requires the 

 assistance of day-light, and the love of labour. We must 

 not then expect it from this bird, condemned by nature to 

 remain during the day in a sombre and solitary state of 

 inaction. A small hole at the foot of a tree, or of a rock, and 

 sometimes even in the naked and beaten ground, is the place 

 where the female deposits her eggs. These are rather more 

 bulky than those of the blackbird, oblong, lightly shaded, 

 and marbled with blackish points on a white ground. We 

 are assured, that she hatches them with the greatest solici- 

 tude, and that when she discovers that they have been 



