84 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Sp.40. POD ARGUS STRIGOIDES. 



Tawny-shouldered Podargus. 



Caprimulgus strigoides, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., p. 58. 



gracilis^ lb., p. 58. 



podargus? Dumont, Diet. Sci. Nat., torn. xiv. p. 504. 



Gracile Goatsucker "i lb. Gen. Syn. Supp., vol. ii. p. 263. 

 Podargust gracilis? Steph. Cont. of Shaw's Zool., vol. xiii. p. 93. 



Australis ? lb., vol. xiii. p. 92. 



cinereus? Vieill. Nouv. Diet. d^Hist. Nat., torn, xxvii. p. 151, 



pi. G. 37. fig. 3. 

 Cold-River Goatsucker, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. vii. p. 369. 

 Podargus humeralis, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 198. 



Podargus humeralis, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. ii. pi. 3. 



The Tawny-shouldered Podargus is plentifully dispersed 

 over New South Wales, where it is not restricted to any peculiar 

 character of country, but inhabits alike the thick brushes near 

 the coast, the hilly districts, and the thinly wooded plains of 

 the interior. I found it breeding on the low swampy islands 

 studding the mouth of the Hunter, and on the Apple-tree 

 {Angophord) flats of Yarrundi, near the Liverpool Range. 



Like the rest of the genus, this species is strictly noc- 

 turnal, sleeping throughout the day on the dead branch of a 

 tree, in an upright position across, and never parallel to, 

 the branch, and which it so nearly resembles as scarcely 

 to be distinguishable from it. I have occasionally seen it 

 beneath the thick foliage of the Casuarince, and I have been 

 informed that it sometimes shelters itself in the hollow trunks 

 of the Eucalypti, but I could never detect one in such a situa- 

 tion ; I mostly found them in pairs, perched near each other 

 on the branches of the gums, in situations not at all sheltered 

 from the beams of the midday sun. So lethargic are its 

 slumbers, that it is almost impossible to arouse it, and I 

 have frequently shot one without disturbing its mate sitting 

 close by ; it may also be knocked off with sticks or stones, 



