306 BULLETIN 15 3, UISriTED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



These two birds were a mated pair according to Colonel Mearns' 

 notes. 



This nightjar is a rather rare bird in collections and the inference 

 that it is probably quite local in its distribution may not be out of 

 place. Erlanger, Neumann, Zedlitz, and others failed to find it on 

 their respective expeditions, to say nothing of their predecessors in 

 Ethiopian ornithology such as Von Heuglin, Riippell, Antinori, 

 Jesse, Blanford, etc. 



Two races are currently recognized — the typical one occurring 

 from the Hawash district east to Gallaland and Somaliland, and a 

 browner, less oljviously spotted form, simj>lex, in the southern Shoan 

 lake region. Lonnberg "- records a specimen from the Acacia 

 country near the Lekiundu River, just south of the Northern Guaso 

 Njdro, in Kenya Colony. This is the southernmost record for the 

 species, but unfortunately he records it binomially as G aprimulgus 

 stellatus so it is impossible to tell which race it represents. How- 

 ever, in answer to my inquiry. Professor Lonnberg writes as follows : 



* * * The differences on whicli Neumann appears to lay most importance 

 are : " duster rotlicher nicht graue grundfarbe, schwarze and gelbe flecke der 

 Fliigeldecken feblen." Regarding the colour of my specimen, it can not be 

 called gray, nor reddish, but it has a suffusion of cinnamon. The wing coverts 

 display a great number of rather large buff spots partly margined with 

 black. If absence of spots on the wing coverts is an essential characteristic of 

 simplex, my specimen from Lekiundu can not be referred to that race. It 

 might, however, be possible that it represents a third race. 



It thus appears that the Lekiundu bird agrees with simplex in 

 color, but more with stellatus in its spotting. It is hardly worthy 

 of nomenclatural recognition, and seems, to me at least, near enough 

 to simplex to tentatively place it with that race. 



It is the southernmost record for the species. 



The present specimens (which are the only ones I have seen) are 

 much darker, more brownish, less grayish, than the colored plate ^* 

 of the type. Their measurements are as follows: Male — wing 155, 

 tail 108, culmen 12; female — wing 146,5, tail 101, culmen 11 milli- 

 meters. Both are in fairly worn plumage. The female is similar 

 to the male except in that the tips of the outer rectrices are white 

 in the latter, while in the former only the basal part of the tip of 

 the inner web is white, the rest being buffy, mottled with dark earth 

 brown. Also the abdominal bars are darker and the dark bars on 

 the tail feathers broader in the male than in the female. Whether 

 this is individual or not I can not say with the present insufficient 

 material. 



Nothing is known of the habits of this bird. 



72 Kuugl. Sv. Vet. Akad. Handlgr., vol. 47, no. 5, 1911. p. 78. 

 " Ibis, 1900, pi. 4. 



