284 Herr E. Hartert on the Caprimulgidse. 



affinity of the supposed species^ but states that the size is 

 different, and that the white on the tail-feathers in the male 

 is terminal in C. intUcus, but subterminal in C.jutaka, and 

 that the females can only be separated by size. The cha- 

 racter of the white spots to the tail-feathers being terminal 

 or subterminal fails entirely on examination of the series now 

 in the British Museum. As regards size, it is quite obvious 

 that specimens from Japan and the Himalayas are very much 

 larger than those from South India and Ceylon, the latter 

 also being less rufous and very greyish. From what I had 

 seen before I never thought it probable that these forms 

 would run into each other; but after studying the grand 

 series now before me I must confess that intermediate stages 

 are common in India, and that therefore the large bird and 

 the small are merely forms of one widely spread species, the 

 smaller one being worthy of subspecific rank. 



As regards the name C. indicus, Lath., there is no doubt 

 that in ' Jerd. 111. Ind. Orn.^ it is first used for one of these 

 forms ; but it is not possible to decide whether Latham^s bird 

 was the large form from the Himalayas or the smaller, 

 because Lady Impey, from whom he got the bird, had many 

 forms from the Himalayas (such as Lvphophoius inrpeyanus, 

 among others), while others were apparently from the plains. 

 The next oldest name is C. cinerascens of Vieillot. Vieillot 

 only gives India as the habitat, and his description is not 

 sufficient to decide which form he meant, although he pro- 

 bably intended the smaller one. Hodgson^s name, C. saturatiur, 

 no doubt applies to the Nepal bird, but it is a nomen nudum. 

 The first name published with description and plates of 

 both sexes, and about which there can be no doubt whatever 

 that it refers to the large form, is C.jotaka, Temm. et Sclileg. 

 (Faun. Jap., Aves, p. 37, pis. 41, 42), and the first name 

 referring to the smaller form from Ceylon is C. kelaarti. I 

 therefore think it most convenient, and also right, according 

 to the rules of nomenclature, to adopt as the specific 

 name of this bird C.jotaka, and to regard the South-Indian 

 small and grey form as a subspecies of it, which I shall call 

 C. jotaka kelaarti. The name C. indicus should be dropped 



