42 CAPRIMULGID^ COSMETORNIS 



the British Museum Catalogue, a typical example of the present 

 species from Christianborg on the Gold Coast. 



Habits. — The Natal Nightjar does not appear to differ from its 

 congeners in habits. It spends the day lying retired in bush or 

 fern, and appears in the evening to hawk for insects. Its note 

 is liquid and mellow, and may be often heard on fine nights. Dr. 

 Stark, who heard this bird's melodious call in the thickly planted 

 grounds of a house at Maritzburg, states that it can be fairly 

 imitated by a good whistler but hardly by syllables ; it consists of 

 eight notes ; the first three of these are dwelt upon ; the last three 

 run into one another in a prolonged trill. Ayres found in the 

 stomach of this Nightjar large and hard beetles swallowed whole. 

 These birds feed only at night and are fond of frequenting roads and 

 bare ground whence they rise to catch any passing insect and quickly 

 settle again. The flight is noiseless. The Woodwards have found 

 the eggs of this Nightjar laid on the ground without any trace of a 

 nest ; they are the size of those of a large thrush and, as in all 

 Nightjars, equally rounded at both ends ; their colour is a pinkish- 

 white slightly spotted with red. 



Genus II. COSMETORNIS. 



Semeiophorus, Gould {nee Agass.), Icon. Av. ii, pi. 2 



(1838) C. vexillarius. 



Cosmetornis, Gray, List Gen. B. p. 8 (1840) C. vexillarius. 



This genus is closely alHed to Caprinmlgus ; it is distinguished 

 by the fact that the first primary is longer than the others up to 

 the sixth ; in the breeding male the seventh and eighth are con- 

 siderably elongated while the ninth is prolonged to about three 

 times the length of the first and forms the so-called streamer or 

 standard. The shaft of the elongated feather is feathered throughout. 

 Only one species of this curious genus is recognised. 



399. Cosmetornis vexillarius. Standard-iving Nightjar. 



Semeiophorus vexillarius, Goidcl, Icon. Av. ii, pi. 3 (1838) ; Hartlauh, 

 P. Z. 8. 1867, p. 821. 



Cosmetornis vexillarius, Hartlauh, Ibis, 1862, p. 143 ; P. L. Sclater, 

 Ibis, 1864, p. 114, pi. 2 [Uganda] ; EirJc, ibid. p. 323 [Tete] : 

 Gnrney, Andersson's B, Damaraland, p. 45 (1872) ; Sharpe, ed. 



