103 



bush-fires, or when a fire occurs and runs riot through 

 the grass huts of a native town ; a rich and bountiful 

 harvest such a catastrophe afifords to the Goatsuckers 

 by night, and Bee-eaters, Rollers and other birds by 

 day. At a town fire at night the ghostly forms 

 of these birds gliding round and over the flames, 

 catching the insects driven up by the advancing fire, 

 add an additional touch of eeriness to what is always 

 an exciting experience. Another representative of 

 this family is the striking Pennant-winged Nightjar 

 {ilfacrodipteryx lojioipennis), a large bird with one 

 feather in each wMng prolonged to form a bare shaft 

 with a racket-shaped enlargement at its termination. 

 Like the other Nightjars they are nocturnal in their 

 habits, coming out at dusk either alone or in small 

 parties. Their extraordinary wing formation gives 

 them a characteristic and unmistakeable appearance 

 when flying ; when I first saw one of these birds on 

 the wing, I began by thinking it an Owl being 

 mobbed by two small birds, and even now whenever 

 I see one the same thought comes first to my mind, 

 so exactly do the two wing-racquets flickering up and 

 down behind the flying bird resemble the movements 

 of two excited Sparrows, trying to get in plenty of 

 vicious and eff"ective pecks at a fleeing and frightened 

 foe. A third Nightjar, the Long -tailed Nightjar 

 (Scotornis) is described as coming from the Gambia, 

 but I have never 3^et had the luck to see one. 



