CAPRIMULGUS. 345 
white patch on each side of throat; some of the breast-feathers with 
rather large, pale buff, terminal spots; lower breast, flanks, and abdomen 
buff, rather narrowly barred with brown, less closely barred posteriorly ; 
under tail-coverts very pale buff or white and unbarred; inner primaries, 
primary-coverts, and outer secondaries strongly barred with rich fulvous ; 
first primary with a large white spot reaching shaft; second, third, and 
fourth primaries each with a buff-margined white spot crossing both webs 
and involving the included section of shaft; exposed portion of each of 
the two outer pairs of rectrices with a large terminal white area, a dusky 
wash near the tip; rectrices barred basally with buff and dark brown. A 
male from Mariveles measures: Length, 228; wing, 170; tail, 103; tarsus, 
18; middle toe with claw, 25. 
Adult female.—Differs from the male in lacking the terminal white 
area on tail-feathers which are barred and mottled with pale buff and 
dark brown; on the outer feather there is an ill-defined light buff area 
at tip of inner web. A female from Mariveles measures: Length, 228; 
wing, 164; tail, 100; tarsus, 18; middle toe with claw, 26. 
Young.—Upper parts blackish brown, very finely vermiculated with 
white and lacking the black blotches and fulvous edges to scapulars which 
are present in the adult plumage; under parts about the same shade of 
gray as in the adult but more finely and more uniformly mottled and 
barred and without fulvous or buff spots on breast; white spots on throat 
just indicated ; wings and tail similar to the adult. 
Eggs.—Whitehead took two eggs of this species at Cape Engano, Luzon, 
May 26, 1895, which he described as follows: “Shape elliptical oval; 
ground-color pale creamy white, with very pale lavender-gray under- 
markings and very pale brownish over-markings; the blotches and mark- 
ings, none of which are very large, are unevenly distributed over the 
whole surface; measurements 31 by 22 mm. The eggs were placed on 
the sand just above high water mark among sea drift, which, in this 
instance, consisted of huge tree trunks. Both birds were seen and iden- 
tified beyond doubt.” (Grant and Whitehead.) 
The gray nightjar appears to be confined to the vicinity of sandy or 
shingle beaches and while abundant in the localities where it has been 
discovered the species has been recorded from but few islands and the 
female and young have been but recently described. The description of 
the eggs was published two years before that of the female. 
Clarke says with feeling that the female “is not an easy specimen to 
describe,” but it is much easier to describe a single specimen than to 
write anything that will apply to the variations which occur in the 
species. In using the descriptions given above considerable allowance 
must be made for variation in the shade of buff or fulvous; this refers 
particularly to the scattered spots on breast, the broad edgings of scap- 
ulars, and the rusty bars on primaries, primary-coverts, and secondaries, 
