1. CAPKIMULGTTS. 527 



Caprimulgus vulgaris, Vieill. Faune Fninq. i. p. 140, pi. 61. fig. 2 



(1828) ; Roiix, Orn. Provenq. p. 240, pi. 147 (1825). 

 Caprimulgus maculatus, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 131 (1831) : id. 



Vogelf. p. 44 (1855). 

 Nycticbelidon europaeus, Rennie, Mont. Orn. Diet. p. 335 (1831). 

 Caprimulgus europseus maculatus, punctatus, puuctorum, foliorum, 



mid peregrinus, A. E. Brehm, Verz. Samml. C. L. Brehm, p. 3 



(1866), teste Dresser, I. c. 

 Caprimulgus smithii, Bj). Consp. i. p. 59 (1850) (S. Africa); Cass. 



Cat. Capr.Ac. Phil. p. 2 (1851) ; Hartl. Ibis, 1862, p. 143 (Cape) ; 



Gurneit, Ibis, 1868, p. 151 ; Gray, Hand-l. i. p. 66 (1869) ; Cab. J. 



J. f. 6. 1878, p. 236 (E. Afi-.) ; Beichen. J. f. O. 1887, p. 61 



(Nyanza). 

 Caprimulgus capensis. Ten-. MS., teste Cass. Cat. Capr. Ac. Phil. 



p. 2 (1851). 



Adult male. Upper parts dark ashy grey, richly vermiculated with 

 blackish brown ; centre of the crown with broad longitudinal 

 brownish-black streaks ; some dull ochraccous-buff streaks on the 

 nape ; scapulars longitudinally streaked with blackish and ochra- 

 ceous buff ; back and rump with blackish shaft-stripes : most of 

 the upper wing-coverts with ochraceous-bufF spots ; primaries blackish 

 brown with rufous-buff spots on both webs, the first three with a 

 large rounded white spot towards the terminal half of the inner 

 web ; two outer rectrices on each side white for more than one 

 inch of their terminal portion ; throat blackish brown, with many- 

 narrow rufous-buff bars and very large whitish spots; breast resem- 

 bliug the upper parts ; abdomen ochraceous buff barred with blackish 

 brown ; under wing-coverts and under tail-coverts like the abdomen, 

 but rather more rusty and the bars less numerous. Total length 

 about 10-5 inches, wing 7"8, tail 5-5, tarsus 0-75, feathered in 

 front except on the lowest part. 



Adult female. Similar to the male, except that the white spots on 

 the primaries are replaced by smaller ochraceous-buff spots slightly 

 speckled with dark brown. 



Young in the first year are duller : the males are then much like 

 the old females in wanting the white spots on the outer rectrices, and 

 the white spots on the primaries being replaced by pale ochraceous- 

 bufE ones. The female in this plumage is more rusty than the male. 



Young when hatched covered with grey down, darker above and a 

 little paler below. 



Ilah. Europe generally to about lat. 63° and south-western parts 

 of Siberia, Asia Minor, and Caucasus, becoming paler in the south- 

 eastern parts, and meeting in Eastern Persia with a different paler 

 and smaller form. It probably does not breed south of the Medi- 

 terranean, as the statement that it breeds in Morocco requires con- 

 firmation. It passes through North Africa in great numbers, and is 

 common in South Africa during the winter. 



The South-African so-called G. smithi, which was for a long time 

 thought to be a distinct species, is nothing but C. e'uro]:)a'us. 



There is a specimen in the Gould Collection said to be from Fokien 

 in China. It belongs to the dark form. 



