CAPRIMULGUS.—PHALANOPTILUS. 389 
tions made in the Volcan de Chiriqui, is the only one we have received. This was 
described in the second paper on Arcé’s Veraguan collections1. More than twenty years 
afterwards, Mr. Ridgway having received a specimen from Sefior Anastasio Alfaro, of 
the Costa Rica National Museum, redescribed the species under the name of Antro- 
stomus rufomaculatus*. He subsequently sent us the type for examination, when its 
identity with A. satwratus was at once evident and the fact recorded by Mr. Hartert. 
C. saturatus has no near allies that we are acquainted with. In having the inner 
web of the primaries uniform, the outer web being spotted, it agrees with C. sericeo- 
caudatus and a few extra-American species. In its general aspect it is not unlike 
C. nigrescens, a species with large white spots on the primaries; but the relationship is 
not at all close. 
There is much to learn concerning this interesting species, the female even being 
unknown. 
PHALANOPTILUS. 
Phalenoptilus, Ridgway, Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. iii. p. 5 (1880); Hartert, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xvi. 
p. 579. 
Mr. Ridgway separated this genus from Caprimulgus on account of its “short even 
tail (much shorter than the wing), and lengthened perfectly naked tarsus (longer than 
the middle toe), the first quill shorter than the fourth, and the plumage with a peculiar 
velvety moth-like surface.” 
Regarding the relative length of the tarsus and middle toe, if the claw of the latter is 
omitted Mr. Ridgway’s statement is correct, but the toe and claw together are con- 
siderably longer than the tarsus as stated by Mr. Hartert. Nor can the tarsus be said to 
be entirely naked in front (Ridgway), for the proximal end is certainly slightly feathered 
though the rest of the joint is bare. Regarding the relative lengths of the first and 
fourth primaries, the first is, as Mr. Ridgway says, usually the shorter of the two, but in 
some of the specimens before me they are nearly equal. 
We would therefore define Phalewnoptilus as having a short even tail, much shorter 
than the wing; tarsi stout, feathered in front only at the extreme proximal end, and 
longer relatively to the middle toe and claw than in Caprimulgus. Plumage exceed- 
ingly soft. 
The range of the genus is that of its single species as given below. 
1. Phalenoptilus nuttalli. 
Caprimulgus nuttalli, Aud. Birds Am. vii. p. 250, t. 495°. 
Antrostomus nuttalli, Baird, Brew., & Ridgw. N. Am. Birds, ii. p. 417 *; Coues, Birds N. W. p. 261°. 
Phalenoptilus nuttalli, Ridgw. Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. iii. p. 5‘; Hartert, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xvi. 
p. 579°. 
Supra griseus, nigro minute irroratus; capite summo plumis singulis fascia nigra medialiter transfasciatis ; 
scapularibus maculis hastifarmibus nigris distincte notatis: subtus gula grisea nigro indistincte trans- 
