CAPRIMULGUS. 43 



the eggs of C. indicus already described, but one has a much 

 brighter salmon-pink ground, and has both the primary purplish- 

 brown and the secondary paler purple markings much better 

 denned and brighter ; and, again, three or four of the eggs have 

 more of a creamy tinge on the ground-colour, and have both 

 the brown and the pale purple markings very faint and cloudy. 

 As regards size, shape, and gloss, these eggs are much the same 

 all through. I do not myself believe that C. kelaarti, as obtained 

 in Southern India at any rate, and C. w<licus, are really specifi- 

 cally distinct : and hence I am not surprised to find that the eggs 

 attributed to both races arc practically identical. 



The eggs, of which I have a large series, vary from 1-08 to 1-23 

 inch in length, and from 0-8 to 0*9 inch in breadth ; but the 

 average is 1*15 by 0-86 inch. 



Caprimulgus albinotatus, Tick. TJie Large Bengal Nightjar. 



Capriinulgus albonotatus, Tick., Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 194 ; Hume, 

 fioiiffh Draft N. # E. no. 109. 



The Large Bengal Xightjar breeds from March to May pretty 

 well all over the better-wooded portions of Continental India, but 

 most plentifully in the low warm valleys of the Sub-Himalayan 

 ranges. 



Like the rest of the family it makes no nest, and lays two eggs 

 upon the bare ground, as a rule in some sheltered situation. 



Mr. K. Thompson writes : " The birds begin pairing as early as 

 March, when they are very noisy and restless, flitting about from 

 place to place, attracted by each new call of a rival bird of either 

 sex, a call which may be either one of love or defiance. 



"The eggs, always two in number, and of a salmon-colour, 

 blotched with pink and brown, are laid on the bare ground under 

 shelter of a bush, stump, or stone. 



" The eggs are long, almost cylindrical, both ends being of the 

 same size. About the end of May the young birds are hatched, 

 covered with down, and are quite helpless and unable to shift their 

 position until able to fly a power which is quickly given them, 

 the rapidity of their growth being commensurate with their 

 utterly helpless and exposed condition whilst nestling on the bare 

 ground. 



" This and C. asiaticus are common to all the lower warm valleys 

 of the Sub-Himalayas. I have found sometimes three and four 

 nests within a small space of jungle (often the dry bed of a water- 

 course), the shelter of a high bank, or in a coppice of young trees. 

 Though quarrelsome and restless when pairing, after that they 

 appear to sober down and many live together in near proximity. 

 They show a peculiar fondness for certain localities, where large 

 numbers will be found, whilst in other places, quite as favourable 

 as it would appear to us, not a bird will be met with." 



Colonel Tickell, who seems to have possessed the remarkable 

 faculty not shared by ordinary mortals of discriminating the sexes 



