FAMILY CAPRIMULGIDAE 21J 



feeding, though they remained entirely within the forest. It was 

 interesting to note that at our camp in the heavy timber inland at the 

 base of the Cerro Chucanti none were recorded. The nesting cycle 

 apparently begins in late January, and continues through May. In 

 1950 I heard the first one on February 24 at a camp near the mouth 

 of the Rio Corotu above Chiman. For the first night or two the calls 

 were brief with broken, uncertain cadence, but 4 days later the birds 

 were in full voice. In March, they sang regularly at our camp at 

 Charco del Toro near the head of tidewater on the Rio Maje. I have 

 heard them also during April and early May in wooded areas at 

 Albrook Field and Curundu in the Canal Zone. 



Major General G. Ralph Meyer found a nest on the ground at 

 Madden Lake, Canal Zone, May 11, 1941, that held an egg so com- 

 pletely incubated that it hatched a few hours later. The only data 

 taken were the measurements, 30.7x23 mm. On Isla Coiba on Janu- 

 ary 29, 1956, I shot a female that flew up from the ground to perch on 

 a log, and then found that she had come from a nest. This was in a 

 small space free of plant growth beside a fallen log. A single egg lay 

 in the center of a brown, thick-bodied dead leaf about 15 centimeters 

 long by 4 wide. Two small, freshly plucked green leaves had been 

 placed on the larger one. On this background the light-colored egg 

 stood out clearly with no semblance of concealment. The egg is 

 elliptical, and measures 30.8x23.5 mm. The shell is glossy, in color 

 white, very faintly tinged with buff, marked irregularly over the 

 entire surface with spots of French gray to lilac-gray, with a few 

 that are cinnamon-drab, some scattered, but most of them grouped at 

 one end. Many of the markings are irregular in outline. Apparently 2 

 eggs constitute a set, as in the chuck-will's-widow, since when I 

 skinned the parent I found that the oviduct held a fully developed 

 ovum ready for deposition of the shell. 



In night-hunting I have followed the calls of males on various 

 occasions but have never succeeded in shooting one of this sex in 

 such pursuit, as they have flown on the instant that the beam of the 

 lamp came probing among the branches of the tree in which they 

 rested. In fleeting glimpses I noted only that the eyeshine was orange 

 to red, as is usual in this genus. The 7 specimens that I have collected 

 in Panama have been found during the day. The single male secured, 

 taken on Isla Coiba January 10, 1956, has the 2 outer primaries not 

 quite fully grown, following molt. 



In specimens at hand there is individual variation in depth of 



