PODAIiGUS. 335 



by Mr. C. E. Cowle, at Illamurta, in Central Australia, in April 1897, measures 1-31 x 1-03 

 inches. Mr. Cowle writes me : — " The Spotted Nightjar (Eurostopns guttatns) lays at the foot of 

 a Hop-bush, as a rule on dead lea\es. I note Mr. Keartland says one egg, but I have found two 

 in a nesting place on the ground." 



In Queensland, Western New South Wales, South Australia, and Central Australia the 

 breeding season is usually in September and the three following months, but in Central Australia 

 it sometimes lays after heavy rains, early in ^larch and April. 



Family PODARGID^. 



Sub-family PODARGIN^. 



C3-eiii:is FOID-A-ISO-TTS, Vieillot. 



Podargus strigoides. 



TAWNY-SHOULDEEED PODARGUS. 

 Caprimulyus strigoideg, Lath., Ind. Orn., Suppl. II., p. 262. (1801). 

 Podargus strigoides, Gould, Handb. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 8-t (1865); Hartert, Cat. Bds. Brit. 



Mus., Vol. XVI., p. 631 (1892); Sharpe, Hand-1. Bds., Vol. II., p. 42 (1900). 

 Podargus humeralis, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. II., pi. 3 (1848). 

 Podargus cuvieri, Vig. and Horsf., Trans. Linn. Soc, Vol. XV., p. 200 (1826). 



Adult male — General colour above dull greyish-white vermiculated with dark hroivn, all the 

 feathers mesially streaked with blackish-brown, and having a small white tip, which is more conspicuous 

 on the crown of the head; tail like the back, but having irregular broken cross bars of blackish-brown ; 

 the wing-coverts slightly rufous, the shoulder tawny in some, the outer series with an indistinct whitish 

 spot, vermiculated with light rufous-brown ; quills blackish-broivn, with irregular ?vhite bars on the 

 outer web; all the under surface greyish-white, the feathers finely mottled with greyish-broun, those on 

 the lower breast, abdomen and flanks freckled with pale brotvn, and mesially streaked with blackish- 

 broivn; bill blackish horn colour; legs and feet pale mealy-brotvn ; iris yellow. Total length in the 

 flesh 19 inches, wing 11-2, tail 92, bill l-J^, tarsus IS. 



Adult female— Similar in plumage to the male, but slightly smaller, Wing 10 S inches. 



Distribution—Southern Queensland, New South Wales, Mctoria, South Australia, Tasmania. 



~r«) IKE the family Caprimulgidae, the family Podargida; is subject to considerable variation 



* *■ in plumage, and the latter attains its zenith in the various forms of the present species, 



Podargus strigoides. Latham states it inhabits New South Wales, and in his description remarks, 



" the general colour of the plumage is rusty-brown above." 



Dr. R. E. Sharpe remarks in his recently published volume, " The History of the Collections 

 contained in the Natural History Departments of the British Museum," - " up to the present 

 time it has never been known where Latham obtained the material for describing so many 

 Australian, or as they were then called, ' New Holland ' birds. 



" In 1902 the Museum acquired from Mr. James Lee, a grandson of the famous horticulturist 

 of Hammersmith, a large volume of paintings e.xecuted for the latter by one of his collectors, 

 Thomas Watling, between 1788 and 1792. These drawings had evidently been shown to 

 Latham, who named most of the birds, and seems to have referred to those pictures ' as Mr. 

 Lambert's Drawings.' They do not seem, however, to have been Lambert's property at any time. 

 The types of Latham's species are, in fact, founded on these drawings of Watling's. 



• Hist. Coll. Brit. Mus. Bds., p. 107 (igo6). 



