318 BRITISH BIRDS. 
and in the Spanish peninsula, though it has occurred several times near 
Marseilles and in other localities in the extreme south-east of France. It 
has also been twice obtained on Malta, and is said to be a regular summer 
visitor to the Canaries. Its winter-quarters are unknown; but may pro- 
bably be in some of the oases in the Sahara. In its kabits it is not known 
to differ from the Common Nightjar; and, lke that species, it lays two 
eggs on the bare ground, which can scarcely be distinguished from those 
of the European bird. It may be distinguished from the Common Night- 
jar by the colour of the nape, which is chestnut-buff instead of grey ; 
but in other respects the two species very closely resemble each other, 
though the Red-necked Goatsucker is slightly the larger bird, and is also 
much more buff on the wing-coverts and on the underparts. In this 
species the female as well as the male has the two outer tail-feathers on 
each side broadly terminated with white, and both sexes have the large 
white spots on the three outer primaries. 
The occurrence of this bird in autumn on the east coast of England is 
very extraordinary. A summer visitor to Spain might attach itself to a 
party of migrants from Africa, flyimg north in spring, and thus overshoot 
its mark, and arrive with its fellow travellers on the south coast of Eng- 
land. Most of the accidental visitors to the east coast of our islands in 
autumn are stray migrants from Siberia, and scarcely a year passes with- 
out instances of the kind; but there is no stream of migration northwards 
in autumn in any part of Kurope. From Eastern Europe there is a stream 
flowing westward in autumn; but from Western Europe the only line of 
migration at this season of the year is from north to south. We must 
therefore assume, if the occurrence of this species in our islands be a fact, 
of which there does not seem to be any room to doubt, that the individual 
in question most probably migrated from West Africa, in the company of 
a party of Common Goatsuckers from Northumberland, in the preceding 
spring. We may assume that it passed the summer near the breeding- 
grounds of its cousins, but fell a victim to some sportsman a few weeks 
after shooting had commenced. 
6) 
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