BIEDS OF EGYPT. 175 



155. Caprimulgus iEGYPTius, Licht. Egyptian Goatsucker. 



(Plate VIII.) 



This species, which ranges throiighout Egypt and Nubia, 

 appears to be most plentiful in spring and autumn, when it 

 is generally in flocks. Von Heughn (Orn. N. O. Afr. p. 128) 

 remarks that six specimens which he killed out of a large 

 flight of fifty were all females. In the Fayoom, in March, 

 I met with a small party of four, all of which were males, 

 from which it would appear that these birds travel in flocks 

 of the same sex, and do not pair until shortly before breeding. 

 Those that I met with in the Fayoom were sitting on the 

 bare sand ; and as they rose they frequently uttered a little 

 snapping sound, and took refuge in some neighbouring 

 tamarisk-bushes. 1 have also occasionally seen them flitting 

 over the water towards sunset. Mr. S. Stafford Allen 

 observes (Ibis, 1864, p. 236) that he found two distinct 

 varieties. I agree with him that there is a considerable 

 difference in the shade of colouring in certain individuals ; 

 for the four which I killed in the Fayoom, though perfectly 

 like each other, were much darker than my former specimen 

 from Aboo-fayda, so that at first I fancied that I had two 

 species ; but on comparison the markings would not justify 

 their separation, although all five were males. 



Pale variety. — Upper plumage pale sandy-brown, finely 

 pencilled with black ; inner web of the quills marked with 

 white, and the whole of them irregularly banded with dusky ; 

 tail barred with nine or ten irregular wavy streaks ; a white 

 patch on the centre of the throat ; remainder of the under- 

 parts pale sandy-brown, faintly, barred on the chest with 

 narrow streaks of dusky ; greater portion of the underpart 



