96 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Sp. 48. EUROSTOPODUS ALBOGULARIS. 

 White-throated Nightjar. 



Caprimulgus albogularis, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 194, 



note. 

 mystacalis, Temm. PI. Col. 410. 



Eurostopodus albogularis, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. ii. 

 pi. 7. 



During my visit to Australia I had frequent opportunities 

 of observing this species. How far it may range over the 

 Australian continent is not known : the south-eastern are the 

 only portions in which it has yet been discovered. I have 

 seen specimens in collections formed at Moreton Bay, and I 

 have killed three or four individuals of an evening on the 

 cleared lands in the neighbourhood of the Upper Hunter, 

 which shows that it is far from being a scarce bird in that 

 part of New South Wales. In all probability it is only a 

 summer visitant in the colony, for it was at this season only 

 that I observed it. In the daytime it sleeps on the ground 

 on some dry knoll or open part of the forest, and as twilight 

 approaches sallies forth to the open glades and small plains or 

 cleared lands in search of insects ; its flight, which is much 

 more powerful than that of any other species of the family I 

 have seen, enabling it to pass through the air with great 

 rapidity, and to mount up and dart down almost at right 

 angles whenever an insect comes within the range of its eye, 

 which is so large and full that its powers of vision must be 

 very great. Most of those I shot were gorged with insects, 

 principally coleoptera and locusts, some of which were entire, 

 and so large as to excite surprise how they could be swallowed ; 

 in several instances they were so perfect that I preserved them 

 as specimens for the cabinet. 



Of its nidification I have no reliable information to furnish ; 

 but that it deposits a single egg on the bare ground is very 

 probable. 



