OnXlTllOLOGY. 355 



Eyes larn;o, habits crepuscular and nocturnal, durini;; the day the birds prrehinK on the 

 ground in some seciuestcred spot. Eggs two, stone colour, mottled and bhjtched, and 

 laid on the bare ground. 



Lyxcornts ckrvi.viceps, Gould. Darjlliug. Arakau. Tenasserim. 



Of tliis grand nightjar Davison remarks, " It makes its appearance soon after 

 sundown, Hying at a great height, and numbers coming from the same direction, 

 uttering its "full and clear wliistle. As the evening advances, they descend lower 

 and lower, till by the time it is quite dark, thoy are Hying about within a few feet 

 of the ground .... I cannot imagine, and I liave often wondered, where these birds 

 roost during the day. I have walked up hill anil down dale over many hundred 

 miles of country, . . . yet only once have I flushed a Lijiicurnin, and that was 

 brooding. . . I "have noticed that when they make their appearance of an evening, 

 they always come from the direction of the mountains, numbers following exactly 

 in the trail of those that have gone before, and all going back exactly the same way 

 at dawn the next morning. This I have not only noticed to be the case with 

 L. cerciniceps, but also with the smaller L. Temminclcii of the Malay Peninsula." 

 On this point Jlr. Hume suggests as just possible that they roost in caves in the 

 hills, but the question is one that still awaits au answer, whore the birds retire 

 to, during the day. 



C.VI'RIMDLGUS IXDICUS, Lath. 



This species ranges, according to Blyth, throughout Burma to Malacca and 

 Sumatra. Many Tenasserim specimens have, however, been referred to C. Jotaka, 

 from Japan, and birds of this Jotaka typo range, according to Hume, right up through 

 Sikkini and Gurhwal to Abbottabadin Hazara. Hume, in summing up, points out 

 that the.se Indian Jotakan never quite attain the dimensions of the Japanese type, and 

 are scarcely separable from Indicus. Blyth would seem to be right in regarding all 

 as a race of Indicus. Its note is described by Jerdon as being tew-yo-yo frequently 

 repeated. 



C. MACHOFRUs, Horsf. Throughout Burma and ranging to North Australia. 



Lord Walden points out that Burmese specimens exceed in size typical 

 Japanese ones, which is just the reverse of what occurs with the supposed Burmese 

 Jotakas. Davison says of this species, " I know of nothing so thorougldy disagreeable 

 ■when one is lying ill with fever in the jungle, as the monotonous call of this nightjar, 

 •which gcios on incessantly from early in the evening till dawn next morning." The 

 fever had doubtless something to say to this ; for the souod to me is very soothing 

 and pleasant, recalling calm scenes of serene beauty and many a tranquil and placid 

 hour s])ent beneath the greenwood tree with the sky for canopy over all. Capt. 

 Fielden remarks, "This bird closes its eyes, whilst seated on its eggs. This must be 

 a great protection from hawks, as its groat eyes are the most conspicuous things about 

 it. The first time I saw this I thought the l)ird was dead, and stooped to pick it up, 

 nearly toucliing it before it rose" (S.F. iii. p. 46). The ne.xt species has been 

 separated, though little more than a race or plumage variety of the present. 



C. .iLBONOTATUs, Tickcll. Toung-ugoo. 



This bird may be distinguished from the last by its larger size, and by being 

 lighter coloured and more huffy. The lower parts, too, are uniform, whereas the 

 last species has the dark breast strongly contrasted with the paler abdomen. 



C. MONTicoi.rs, Franklin. Pegu. Martaban. Tenasserim. 



C. Andamanicus, Hume. Andamans. 



C. AsiATicus, Lath. Arakan. Pegu. Tenasserim. 



The note of this species, according to some, is ' Tyooh-tyook-tyook,' or as Jerdon 

 happily suggests, like the sovind made by a stone skudding over ice. There is first 

 the ringing ti-i-ook of the stone striking the ice, and the same note repeated as 

 though the stone had given three or four gi-eat bounds, and the note then gradually 

 falls, as thougli the stone were gradually vanishing in the distance. It is a most 

 weird and curious sound, ringing out close to one's path on some glorious bright 



