CAPBIMOLGUS EUROPiETJS 83 



Family CAPEIMULGID.E. 



CAPRIMULGUS EUROPiEUS, Linn^us. 

 NIGHTJAR. 



Caprimulgus europaeus, Linn. Sijst. Nat. i, p. 346 (1766) ; Hartert, Cat. 

 Birds Brit. i)/«.s-. xvi, p. 526 ; Malherbe, Faune Orn. da I'Alg. p. 9 

 (1855) ; Loche, E.rpl. Set. Alg. Ois. ii, p. 102 (1867) ; Kocnig, J.f. 0. 

 1888, p. 164 ; id. J.f. 0. 1892, p. 359 ; Whitaker, Ibis, 1895, p. 102. 



C. Yulgaris, Malherbe, Faune Orn. de VAlg. p. 9 (1855). 



C. europaeus meridionalis, Erianger, J. f. 0. 1899, p. 519. 



Description. — Adult male, spring, from near the town of Tunis, Nortli 

 Tunisia. 



General colour above ashy-grey, finely pencilled and marked with 

 blackish-brown ; crown broadly streaked with black ; scapulars and wing- 

 coverts richly marked with blackish-brown and buff; quills irregularly 

 barred with rufescent-buff ; the three outer primaries with large white 

 patches on the inner webs ; tail irregularly barred with blackish-brown, 

 the two outer rectrices on each side broadly tipped with white ; throat 

 buff, finely pencilled and barred with blackish, the lower part with some 

 conspicuous white feathers, the sides margined with rufescent-buff and 

 black ; sides of the head with elongated rufescent-buff feathers, margined 

 with black ; breast and abdomen grey-buff, pencilled and irregularly barred 

 with brown ; crissum and under tail-coverts yellowish-buff, barred with dark 

 brown ; claw of middle toe serrated ; mouth furnished with bristles on its 

 sides. 



Iris black ; bill black ; feet reddish-brown. 



Total length 10-50 inches, wing 7-80, culmen from gape 1-20, tarsus 0-75. 



Adult female resembles the male, but lacks the white patches on the 

 wings and tail, these being replaced by yellowish-buff patches. In size the 

 female is usually larger than the male, but the difference is slight. 



The Common Nightjar or Goatsucker is of regular passage in 

 Tunisia, the bulk of the migrants arriving, on the way north, in April 

 and May, and returning southward in the early autumn. Those that 

 remain and breed in the Kegency, depart together with the migrants 

 returning from the north in autumn, and I know of no instance of 

 the species wintering in Tunisia. 



In Algeria and Marocco tlie Nightjar occurs more or less abun- 

 dantly, as it does in Tunisia, although in Marocco, according to 

 Favier, it is less numerous near Tangier than C. ruficoUis. 



3 ' VOL. II. 



