Cypselidse^ Caprimulgidre, and Podargidre. 371 



and towards the east they show a tendency to become paler 

 (cf. Cat. B. xvi. p. 527, under " Hab."). 



Mr. Ogilvie Grant, in his remarks in 'The Ibis/ 1894-, 

 pp. 502 and 518, hokls Lord Tweeddale and me to blame 

 for not having separated from C. manillensis^ the single 

 specimen of a Goatsucker collected by A. B. Meyer in Celebes. 

 With a good series of C. manillensis before him, he found that 

 they always have only the terminal portion of the inner web 

 white, while the Celebes bird has both webs tipped with 

 white and the rictal bristles longer. These observations are 

 quite correct, and I had noticed these differences when 

 working out the Caprimulgidae for the Catalogue, but being 

 very anxious to avoid the naming of any '' bad " new species, 

 and not having seen many C manillensis, I did not dare to 

 separate that single specimen. Now, having examined many 

 more C. manillensis, I quite agree with Mr. Grant that the 

 Celebes bird should be kept apart, but I object to his sentence 

 that " two more totally distinct species of Goatsucker can 

 hardly be imagined." These words are about as gross an 

 exaggeration as can be " imagined," for (let alone the magni- 

 ficent " Goatsuckers " of aberrant genera) a glance at any 

 collection of the genus Capriniulgus only will show that the 

 majority of species are more widely different from each 

 other than C. manillensis from C celebensis. 



On the same page Mr. Grant speaks of Lijncornis minda- 

 nensis being obtained in Luzon. The specimens collected 

 there by Mr. Whitehead are certainly L. mindanensis, if the 

 latter is specifically different from L. macrotus ; but I looked 

 upon the two {pp. cit. p. 605) as representative forms in- 

 habiting Luzon and Mindanao, and even now doubt their 

 specific distinctness, though we must still learn more about 

 them before we finally decide. 



]Mr. W. T. Blanford, in his admirable volume (iii.) on the 

 ' Birds of India,' p. 189, says : " Somewhat to my surprise, 

 I found the South-Indian and Ceylon C. atripennis identical 

 with typical C. macrurus from Java (the original locahty) . 

 It is a small bird of very dark colour, the primaries without 

 * The author is }wt Cf ray, who uover described it ! 



