CA.PRIMULGUS. 189 



some broad buff edges; wing-coverts spotted and stippled black 

 and buff ; black cross-bars on the tail indistinct ; first four 

 primaries with a white spot beyond the middle; outer two pairs of 

 tail-feathers with white tips Ig-^ inches long; a large white spot 

 on the throat, the white feathers tipped buff and black, sides of 

 head more or less rufous ; a whitish moustachial stripe ; chin, 

 throat, and breast mottled brown, darker or jjaler, with a few 

 broader buff edges to the feathers ; abdomen and lower tail- 

 coverts buff', barred throughout, but the bars rather wider apart 

 posteriorly. 



Female with the spots on the primaries and outer tail-feathers 

 smaller and tinged with buff or rufous. 



Bill pinkish brown ; gape flesh-colour ; iris dark brown ; feet 

 brown (Oates). 



Dimensions varying: in the large Northern form (C. alho- 

 notatus), length about 13 inches, tail 6-5-7, wing 8-9, tarsus -75 ; 

 in the small Ceylonese race {C. afripetmis), length 11, tail 5*5, 

 wing 7, tarsus "7. The tarsus is feathered throughout. 



Somewhat to my surprise I find the South Indian and Ceylon 

 C. atripennis identical with typical C. macruriis from Java (the 

 original locality). It is a small bird of very dark colour, the 

 primaries without any rufous markings in adult males. The large 

 pale C. albonotatus of Northern India, with a buff-coloured, finely 

 and very neatly stippled crown, the breast scarcely darker than 

 the abdomen, and imperfect rufous bars at the base of all 

 primaries, is, at first sight, a very different bird ; but, as Hume 

 has pointed out, every intermediate gradation may be found in 

 the Himalayas, Assam, and Burma. These intermediate forms 

 have been described by Jerdon and other Indian ornithologists as 

 C. macrurus. Such intermediate forms are rare in Peninsular 

 India, though there is considerable variation : thus there is a 

 Nilgiri skin in the Hume collection the size of Q. atripennis, but 

 with the coloration of C. alhonoiahis. I therefore look upon this 

 as one of the cases in which a large pale form inhabiting Northern 

 India passes into a small dark variety to the southward on both 

 sides of the Bay of Bengal. 



Distribution. The large pale form (C albonotatas) is found 

 throughout the Himalayas at low elevations, in the North-west 

 Provinces, Bengal, Chutia Nagpur, and Eaipur, and in Burma. 

 Intermediate forms between the large pale C. albonotatus and the 

 small dark C. macrurus occur from the Eastern Himalayas to 

 Tenasserim, Siam, and China. Typical C. macrurus ranges 

 through the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago to Queensland and 

 New Gruinea, and also (as C. atripennis) inhabits Ceylon and 

 Southern India as far north as the Godavari to the eastward and 

 Belgaum to the west. 



Habits, Sfc. All the varieties ai'e chiefly forest birds, though 

 occurring in Northern India in wooded parts of cultivated country. 

 The call of this species is compared by several observers to the 

 'sound made by striking a plank with a hammer ; a low chirp is 



