98 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Sp. 49. EUROSTOPODUS GUTTATUS. 



Spotted Nightjau. 



Caprimulgus guttatus, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 192. 

 FichteVs Goatsucker, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. vii. p. 345. 

 Kal-ga, Aborigines of the lowland districts of Western Australia. 

 Goatsucker of the Colonists. 



Eurostopodus guttatus, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. ii. pi. 8. 



As the similitude of its form would lead us to suspect, this 

 species closely resembles the preceding, both in its habits and 

 in the whole of its economy ; unlike that species, however, 

 whose range of habitat would appear to be very limited, the 

 present bird is universally, but thinly, distributed over the 

 whole of the southern portion of Australia. I killed it in 

 South Austraha and in New South Wales ; the collection 

 formed by Gilbert at Swan River contained specimens which 

 presented no difference whatever, either in size or markings, 

 and I have since seen examples from the north-west coast. 



During my rambles in New South Wales I more than once 

 flushed this bird in open day, when, after mounting rapidly 

 in the air, it performed a few zigzag evolutions and pitched 

 again to the earth at a distant spot. That it breeds on the 

 ground there can be no doubt, as I found a newly hatched 

 young one on the precise spot from which I had flushed the 

 adult ; the little helpless creature, which much resembled a 

 small mass of down or wool, was of a reddish-brown colour, 

 not very dissimilar from the surface of the ground where it 

 had been hatched : my utmost endeavours to find the broken 

 shell were entirely unavailing; but I have since obtained 

 undoubted eggs of this species from two or three sources. 

 They differ both in form and colour from those of any of the 

 typical Cajjrimulffi, and also from those of the JPodargi and 

 jEgotheles. They may be described in a few words. In size 

 they are about an inch and three-eighths in length by nearly 



