202 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



continued calls. I completely lost sight of them in the obscurity, but 

 for many minutes their weak cries emerged from the dark mass. At 

 length they descended victorious into the plains of Italy, and hence- 

 forth their path, although not free from obstacles, was comparatively 

 easy. Finally they found a haven beneath their parent's sheltering 

 wings." 



On this and previous occasions Mr. Skutch discovered that the 

 young pauraques were perfectly capable of locomotion, even at an 

 early age, in response to warning calls from their parents. He saw 

 no evidence that the adults ever carried them in their capacious 

 mouths, as other species of the Caprimulgidae have been reported to 

 do, or assisted them to move in any other way. He says that "during 

 the day male and female take turns on the eggs, relieving each other 

 every two or three hours. The male is usually found incubating in 

 the early morning. At night, I have found only the female cover- 

 ing the eggs." 



Plumages. — The downy young pauraque is as unique among the 

 Caprimulgidae as are the eggs. It is completely covered with fine, 

 soft down, leaving nothing exposed but the tip of the bill and the 

 feet. The colors are rich and contrasting; the forehead, crown, and 

 nape are "pinkish buff" ; the lores, cheeks, and auriculars are "mikado 

 brown" ; the back and rump are "sayal brown," with a central band 

 of pinkish buff"; the chin and throat are pale "pinkish cinnamon," 

 and the remainder of the under parts are "pinkish buff." 



Ridgway (1914) describes a female nestling, not yet fully grown, 

 as follows: "General color of upper parts pale brownish gray, very 

 minutely vermiculated or stippled with darker ; pileum and scapulars 

 with scattered roundish and subtriangular small spots of black ; inter- 

 scapular region clouded or blotched with black; under parts light 

 grayish buff, narrowly barred with dusky on chest, more broadly 

 barred with the same on throat, breast, and sides, the abdomen and 

 under tail-coverts immaculate; thighs uniform light fawn color; 

 remiges and rectrices (not fully grown) apparently as in adult 

 female." Of a young female, fully grown, he says : "Primaries and 

 rectrices as in adult female; pileum spotted, instead of streaked, 

 with black, the spots mostly of broadly triangular form; back also 

 heavily spotted, or blotched, instead of streaked, with black; scapu- 

 lars without buff margins ; barring of under parts much less sharply 

 defined, less dark in color; throat band light dull buff, barred with 

 blackish." 



Mr. Sennett (1888) says of the young male: "White wing-patch of 

 male mixed with buff ; white on tail not so sharply defined, nor does 

 it extend so near to base as in mature birds. The outer tail-feathers 



