Capt. G. E, Shelley on African Birds. 379 



XXXIII. — Afetv stray Notes on African Birds. 

 By Captain G. E. Shelley, F.R.G.S. 



In the British Museum there is a specimen of Caprimulgus 

 which I received from Accra, West Africa, and which appears 

 to be new. It belongs to the same group as C. natalensis, 

 Smith, and C. fulviventris, Hartl., from which it may be dis- 

 tinguished by its general ashy brown plumage, and especially 

 by the colouring of the pectoral band, and differs, in my 

 opinion, more from C. fulviventris than that bird does from 

 C natalensis. In such a complicated group as the Goat- 

 suckers, it is hard to say if these local varieties are of real 

 specific value ; I shall therefore name this bird, after the lo- 

 cality from whence the type was procured, 



Caprimulgus accrjE, n. sp. 



Most nearly allied to C. fulviventris, Hartl., from which it 

 differs in the general ashy, not rufous-brown plumage of the 

 head, back, scapulars, upper surface of the wings,, tail, and 

 pectoral band. The tail has much less white, that colour 

 being confined to the outer web and '7 inch of the tip of the 

 outer feather and to "2 of the next one. Above ashy brown 

 with large black triangular centres to the feathers, down the 

 middle of the crown and of the scapulars (as in C. natalensis 

 and C. fulviventris) ; sides of the crown pale ashy brown, not 

 shaded with rufous. Upper surface of wing similarly marked 

 to those of the two above-mentioned species ; but the coverts 

 and secondaries are ashy, like the back. The undersurface of 

 the wing is identical in the three species. Collar barely per- 

 ceptible on the back of the neck ; a few of the feathers on 

 the sides of the neck are identically the same in the three 

 species (black, broadly edged with buff) . The pectoral band 

 dark brown, the feathers finely pencilled and barred or 

 freckled with ashy white, with partially defined white bars or 

 spots at the ends of the feathers. In the other two species 

 the pectoral band is dark brown, nearly black, with broad dis- 

 tinct buff bars and edges, best defined in C. fulviventris, and 

 more interrupted and with black borders forming the buff 

 into rather bold spots in C. natalensis. In all tliree species 



