40 CAPRIMULGID^ CAPRIMULGUS 



Length about 10-0 ; wing 640 ; tail 4-80 ; culmen 0-40 ; tarsus 

 0'78, only the upper third feathered. 



Female with the white of the wing-quills rusty and of the 

 lateral rectrices ochreous. 



This species varies a good deal in size and shape ; the wings of 

 two males, measured in the flesh by Alexander, measured 6'7 and 

 6"5; those of three females, 5-7, 5'8, and 6-1. One of these was 

 very pale in colour. 



Fig. 18. — Caprimitlgtis fossii. x |. 



Distribution. — This species is found throughout tropical Africa, 

 from the Gold Coast and British east Africa southwards to Ehodesia 

 and Bechuanaland where it appears to be fairly abundant, while 

 stragglers have been obtained at Kroonstad in the Orange Eiver 

 Colony, and on the Umlatusi river in Zululand. In Bechuanaland 

 and Ehodesia it has been recorded from Tati (Oates), near Panda- 

 matenka (Holub), Makaleka country (Brit. Mus,), Umfuli and 

 Hanyani rivers (Ayres), near Salisbury (Marshall), Tete (Kirk), 

 Senna and Chicowa on the Zambesi (Alexander). 



Habits. — Holub states that this Nightjar is very abundant in the 

 dry country on the road to the Victoria Falls ; here they are found 

 seated on the bare ground, which they so closely resemble that it 

 is impossible to see them till they are flushed. They fly noiselessly 

 and with great rapidity through the thickest bushes ; Ayres found 

 them common on the Hanyani river, where their incessant chirring 

 notes disturbed his night's rest ; and Alexander came across them 

 many times on the Zambesi, on waste ground overgrown with 

 weeds near the river, in localities covered with thick long grass, and 

 open stony patches in thick woods. As with other Nightjars the food 

 consists wholly of insects such as beetles and moths. The note is 

 a chirring or grinding sound constantly repeated, but there is, accord- 



