XVIII STANDARD-WINGED NIGHTJAR 387 



have met with the oribi on the open plateau of the 

 Manica country, to the north of the Zambesi, at 

 Gazuma vley, about thirty miles to the south-west 

 of the Victoria Falls (but nowhere else in the 

 surrounding country), and on the marshy flats in 

 the neighbourhood of Linyanti, on the northern 

 bank of the river Chobe. All over this part of the 

 country the remarkable standard-winged nightjar 

 {Cosmetornis vexillarius) is very common ; indeed, 

 one can scarcely ride ten miles through the veldt 

 without putting one up. The males had now 

 assumed their long wing-feathers, which, if I am not 

 mistaken, they only retain during the breeding 

 season ; at least I have observed that one does not 

 see any nightjars with long feathers in their wings 

 before September, or after December, and it is in 

 the former month that the females usually lay. 

 Like all other nightjars, these birds lie very close 

 during the daytime, and when disturbed only fly 

 twenty or thirty yards, and again alight and lie close 

 to the ground. The females when sitting will 

 almost allow one to tread upon them before they 

 move ; indeed, I have seen one sit still whilst four 

 horsemen and about thirty Kafirs walked past within 

 a yard of her in single file. Like its European 

 congener, the African standard-winged nightjar lays 

 two eggs upon the bare ground, the only difference 

 being that the marblings are pinky-brown instead of 

 grey. There is another species of nightjar, the 

 Caprimulgtis mozambicus^ also very common in this 

 part of the country, whose nesting habits and the 

 colour of whose eggs are very similar to those of 

 C. vexillarius, from which species, however, it may 

 be at once distinguished by being of a greyer colour, 

 and wanting the six bars across the wings which 



