280 Herr E. Hartert on the Caprimulgidse. 



The species has never been procured since. Two specimens 

 are at the Frankfort Museum and one at Leyden. 



(4) Caprimulgus asiaticus, Lath, 



There is a very large series of this species in the British 

 Museum: I have seen many more, and I brought several with 

 me from India. Very exact descriiptions of it are given in 

 Legge's ' Birds of Ceylon.' This author states that the 

 female has the spots on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quills buff, in 

 some exaynples wanting altogether. Unless a great many speci- 

 mens collected by the most reliable collectors are wrongly 

 sexed, which cannot be supposed, this statement is not quite 

 correct. I cannot distinguish the sexes in quite adult 

 examples, and I have never seen a specimen without any 

 spots on the quills. The white terminal patches to the outer 

 tail-feathers vary in extent and are often not pure white ; but 

 this does not seem to be a sign of immaturity, nor is it peculiar 

 to the male; to judge from the material that I have been 

 able to examine, it is merely individual variation. Speci- 

 mens from drier and more sandy districts are much paler 

 and more isabelline than those from wooded countries ; 

 but it is not possible to separate these local forms. Gates 

 (B. Burm. ii. p. 18) has suggested that C. tamaricis might 

 be identical with C asiaticus ; but this is not the case. 

 C. tamaricis of Tristi^am is identical with C. nubicus, Licht., 

 and C. infuscatus of Riippell, as has been already stated by 

 Blanford in the ' Geology and Zoology of Abyssinia,' p. 336. 

 This I have been able to verify by examining the types 

 of these authors. 



(5) Caprimulgus affinis, Horsf. 



It has been admitted {cf. Salvadori, Ucc. Borneo, p. 116) 

 that C. affinis occurs in Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Timor, and 

 Lombock. A careful comparison of specimens from all the 

 above-named localities has convinced me that they really be- 

 long to one species. But considerable doubts have existed as 

 to Mhether C. arundinaceus , Jacq. & Pucher. (Voy. Pole Sud, 

 Ois. p. 93), the ''Engoulevent des Roseaux '■" of Hombron 

 and Jacquinot (figured pi. 21. fig. 2), is a distinct species. I 



