CAPRI MULGUS. 49 



Colonel Butler tells us : " Two fresh Nightjar's eggs were 

 brought to me on the 29th July this year (1876). They were laid 

 of course on the bare ground and in the neighbourhood of Deesa. 

 The colour was pale pinkish cream or salmon, marked with reddish- 

 brown irregular streaks and spots, underlaid with numerous faint 

 blotches of dark and light inky purple or lilac. I fancy they 

 belong to this species, as we only have two other Nightjars in this 

 neighbourhood, C. mahrattensis and C. tnonticolus. The eggs, I 

 think, are too large for the former, and the latter I do not think 

 breeds here, as they are absent all the hot weather, and do not 

 arrive until about the third week in July." 



He subsequently added: "Eggs obtained by me of this species 

 subsequently leave no doubt whatever of the identity of those I 

 got at Deesa. Mr. J. Davidson sent me two fresh eggs taken at 

 Dhulia, Khandesh, 8th September, 1880." 



Mr. J. Davidson, writing on the birds of Western Khandesh, 

 says : " It breeds abundantly all round Dhulia in July, August, 

 and the beginning of September." 



Mr. C. J. W. Taylor informs us that he took the eggs of this 

 species at Manzeerabad in Mysore on the llth April. 



" The breeding-season on the western side of the island," says 

 Colonel Legge in his ' Birds of Ceylon,' " is during the first three 

 or four months of the year." 



The eggs are long, somewhat cylindrical ovals, slightly pointed 

 towards one end, with a ground-colour varying from a pinkish 

 stone-colour to a deep salmon-pink, blotched, clouded, spotted, and 

 streaked with different shades of pale reddish and purplish brown, 

 with faint underlying inky-purple clouds and spots. The eggs 

 vary somewhat in size, but the largest are scarcely half the dimen- 

 sions of those of the European Nightjar, and they average much 

 smaller than any of our Indian Goatsuckers except C. atripennis. 

 The eggs have been obtained by several of my contributors in 

 different parts of India, and little doubt can be entertained either 

 as to their authenticity or as to the normal type of coloration in 

 this species being that above described. The eggs have a faint 

 gloss. The eggs of this species are perhaps, as a rule, more 

 brightly salmon-coloured than those of any other of our Indian 

 species with which I am acquainted. 



In length they vary from 0-98 to !! inch, and in breadth from 

 0-73 to 0-83 inch ; but the average is about 1-04 by 0*77 inch. 



Caprimulgus mahrattensis, JSykep. Sykes's Nightjar. 



Caprimulgus mahrattensis, &ykes, Jerd. . Ind. i, p. 197 ; Hume, 

 Cat. no. 113. 



Colonel Butler writes regarding this species: " Mr. Doig found 

 two nests in the E. Narra, Sind, on the 2nd May, 1878, containing 

 fresh eggs. On revisiting the place on the 22nd July, our men 

 found three or four more nests containing fresh eggs. The nest 



VOL. III. 4 



