Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 385 



XIII. — Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 



We have received the following letters addressed " To the 

 EJitors of The Ibis'^'i- 

 SiKs, — In reply to your enquiries, I have pleasure in 

 informing you that I found the two eggs of the Standard- 

 winged. Nightjar (^Macrodijderijx longipennis) , wiiieh I 

 presented to the British Museum '^, near a small town 

 named Ikere, fourteen miles N.E, of Ibadan, in the Western 

 Province- of Southern Nigeria. There were only two eggs 

 in the nest, and I should say that this is the usual number 

 of the clutch, as the hen had just begun to sit. The nest 

 was very primitive, consisting of a few dried grasses, 

 i'ashioned into a nest on the bare ground, which in this 

 case was on the site of a deserted farm. The hen bird 

 sat very closely, and 1 almost trod on her, as her plumage 

 very nearly corresponded with the ground. When she 

 flew off, I found that she had not got any pennants to her 

 wings, and from frequent observations I have come to 

 the conclusion that it is only the male bird which has the 

 peculiar flag-like pennants on its wings. These birds are 

 rarely seen in the daytime, unless disturbed fiom their quiet 

 dark day-resorts, but they are very common after sunset till 



dark. ,, p 



Yours &c., 



Jan. nth, 1908. J. H.J. FaRQUHAR 



(Assist. Conservator of P'orests, 

 Southern Nigeria). 



Sirs, — By the outgoing mail I am sending you a skin of 

 what I believe to be Glareola pratincola and a clutch of two 

 eggs. These birds were nesting in hundreds on the plouglied 

 land of the estate of Mr. Alfred Piatt, Isipingo, Natal, 

 which is on the south coast, about twelve miles from Durban, 

 The eggs were laid on the bare ground, mostly on hard dark 

 soil, which had been pecked up by the birds into small pellets, 

 and the nests were placed on the ridges between the ploughed 

 furrows. The eggs are so closely similar to the surroundings 



* Cf. ' Ibis,' 1907, p. 655. 



