178 [April, 



applied to this bird without such an extended exercise of the imagination as might 

 at first appear necessary, throwing out of the case too his " videtur major." His 

 only other dimensions are " digiti fere longitudine," applied to the bristles, 

 " rostri superioris ad latera," and "Alas longas habet nimirum semipedem," 

 both of which answer quite well for the bird we now suppose them to have 

 been applied to, and so does his description in all other respects. 



I beg to remind the reader, however, that I have no disposition whatever to 

 attempt to make out a case, ex parte, and therefore suggest the possibility of 

 Marcsrave and perhaps Brisson having had in view an African species, the Capri- 

 mulgus climacurus, Vieill. Gal. des Ois. i. pi. 122, which will suit their descrip- 

 tions to some extent. Probably at the time Marcgrave wrote (1648) and certain- 

 ly in the time of Brisson, (1760) bird skins from Africa were often taken to Bra- 

 zil by vessels engaged in the slave trade, and errors respecting locality might 

 have occurred readily. 



The tail of this bird has been particularly unfortunate. In the description by 

 Azara, in " Apuntamientos para la historia natural de los Paxaros del Paraguay," ii. 

 p. -537, (octavo, Madrid, 1805,) he gives the dimensions of the tail of his " Del 

 cola de tixera " thus: "cola 10 plumas : la de afuera 6 primeia 24 lineas mas 

 larga que la segunda: esta 5 mas que la tercera: y esta 2 mas que la quarta, y 

 11 menos que la central." 



In the French edition of Azara, (Walckenaer's) iv. p. 115, (octavo, Paris, 

 1809) these dimensions are given correctly: " Des 10 (pennes) de la queue, I'ex- 

 terieure a 24 lignes de plus que la deuxieme, celle-ci 5 de plus que la troisieme, 

 et cette derniere 2 de phis que la quatrieme, et 11 de mains que !es 2 du 

 milieu." 



But Vieillot in Nouv. Diet. x. p. 242, in his description of Caprimulgns furci- 

 fer, which is copied from Azara almost verbatim, alters one most important word 

 in the dimensions as given above ; he says, " Cette queue a la penne exterieure 

 de vingt-quatre lignes plus longue que la deuxieme, celie-ci en a cinq de plus que 

 la troisieme, et cette derniere deux de plus que la quatrieme, et onze de plus que 

 les deux du milieu." 



This error has, of course, caused some confusion, and Vieillot's description con- 

 taining it appears to have been relied on by some authors, (including Bonaparte 

 in Consp. Av.) 



This tail was a standing riddle to Vieillot. In Ency. Meth. ii. p. 543, 

 (quarto, Paris, 1823) although he continues to copy the description of Azara, 

 he further alters, thus: "Cette queue a sa penne exterieure plus longue 

 de vingt-quatre lignes que la deuxieme; celle-ci en a cinq de plus que la 

 troisieme, qui en a deux de plus que la quatrieme, yici surpass^ les deiix du 

 milieu de jires d'un police." 



All the dimensions of Azara answer very well for the Caprimulgus psalurus, 

 Temm., in young plumage or perhaps in the plumage of winter, which was the 

 season when the observations of Azara were made, " He visto," he says, "algu- 

 nos siempre solos, y en lo mas crudo del invierno nunca en verano ni prima- 

 vera." 



The synonymes of this species given by Hartlaub, in Systematischer Index zu 

 Don Felix de Azara's Apuntamientos, &c., p. 19, (quarto pamphlet, Bremen, 

 J 847,) are entirely correct as far as they go. 



The fact that a specimen in the British Museum is named Caprimulgus manurus 



