Oo) Bea 
and never seem to miss their mark. As you watch them returning 
in batches at intervals, up till long after dark none seem to have, 
in their headlong flight, over shot the mark or has to wander 
up and down this rugged part of the country in search of its 
particular cave. 
Famity CAPRIMULGIDE (Goat-suckers) 
This well known and typical family, have many representatives 
in India ; their plumage is soft and mottled ; eyes large, general appear- 
ance not unlike the owls. The bill is broad, depressed and weak, 
gape wide, hooked at the tip; wings short and rounded ; tail long ; 
tarsi short and stout; toes strong, and like the swifts, the outer 
toe in some of the species can be reversed though partially ; bill is 
curved ; gape wide; rictal bristles strong and numerous; wings long; 
tarsus short, protected by scutae. These birds like the owls have 
nocturnal habits ; they are popularly known as night-jars, Fern-owls 
or night-hawks. 
(106) OrorHrRix Hopesonu, Hodgson’s Frog-mouth, is occasionally 
met in Darjeeling. It reminds us not a little of the owls, partly 
owing to its nocturnal habits ; soft plumage and silent flight ; also 
when close at hand, its dark richly mottled colour. Ofothrix is 
somewhat rare in Darjeeling and difticult to find, as it hides in the 
more thickly wooded parts during the day, and sallies forth in the 
dusk of evening to hunt for insects, which it chiefly feeds on. I 
have occasionally met with this species on Birch Hill, also Silver 
Spring, and Ghoom forest and some of the more wooded parts close 
by. Itsits silently, as you approach, in a squat position usually 
lengthwise on the branch of a shady tree having large lateral 
branches. In the dusk of evening it is not an easy bird to make 
out, unless you know its peculiarities, when disturbed it has a low 
silent flight. The usual position of Frogmouths is erect; but 
when alarmed, or on being approached they stoop as though con- 
cealing themselves, they remain parallel to the branch they have 
been seated on. In size this species is 10 inches in length ; colour 
of the plumage is dark, glossy, black, mingled with ferruginous, 
mottled and blotched with black and white ; tail ferruginous speck- 
led with black and light coloured bands; beneath it is dull chesnut, 
the feathers tipped black. The specimen before me has the bill 
small, hidden away among the feathers and bristles, the upper 
mandible not overlapping the lower, which seems to be the case of 
not a few of this family. 
