—_— 
ae Ae 8 T 
NIGHT/JAR 641 
not here be mentioned, the genus Vyctidromus, though consisting of only 
one species (JV. albicollis) which, though varying somewhat in size and 
coloration, ranges from Texas to Southern Brazil, requires remark, 
since it has tarsi of sufficient length to enable it to run swiftly on the 
ground, while the legs of most birds of the Family are so short that 
they can make but a shuffling progress. The South-American 
Heleothreptes, with the peculiar form of wing (counting from the 
wrist, in which the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th primaries are greatly elongated) 
possessed by the male, needs mention ; but a still more exaggerated 
condition exists in two African species, referred by some ornithologists 
PENNANT-WINGED NicHTsaR, Macrodipteryx. 
(After sketch from life by J. Gedge.) 
to as many genera (Macrodipteryx and Cosmetornis) though probably 
one genus would suffice for both. The males of each of them are 
characterized by the wonderful development of the 2nd primary, 
which reaches in adult specimens the extraordinary length of 17 
inches or more. The former of these, the Caprimulgus macrodipterus 
of Afzelius, seems to have the more northern range, occurring across 
the continent from Abyssinia to the West Coast, and the shaft of 
the elongated remiges is bare for the greater part of its length, 
retaining the web, in a spatulate form, only near the tip. The 
latter, to which the specific name of vevil/larius was given by Mr. 
Gould, inhabits equatorial Africa, and thence to Damaraland on 
41 
