CAPRIMULGTJS. 51 



Caprimulgns monticolus, Franklin. Franklin's Nightjar. 



Caprimulgus monticolu?, FrankL. Jertl. B. Lid. i, p. 198 : Hume. 

 Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 114. 



Franklin's Nightjar breeds from April to August, according to 

 locality, throughout the lower ranges of the Himalayas, the Sub- 

 Himalayan forest and jungle-tracts, and forest and hilly regions 

 of the Central Provinces and otber parts of India. 



It lays normally two eggs (at times a single one, hard-set, may 

 be met with) on the bare ground, as a rule, in some shaded spot, 

 -where it can be concealed. 



The eggs are of the usual type of our Indian Nightjars, long 

 cylindrical ovals, varying a good deal in size, but little iii shape. 

 They have a fine gloss, more so I think than our Indian Nightjars. 

 The ground-colour is, I think, as a rule, a delicate cream -colour, 

 slightly tinged with pink, spotted and thinly blotched with very 

 pale purple and pale brown. I have never taken these eggs 

 myself, and cannot, therefore, in every case be as certain as I 

 should wish of their authenticity. 



An egg, however, received from Mr. Blewitt from Eaepore, 

 differs toto ccelo from those above described, at least so far as 

 colouring is concerned. It has a rich salmon-pink ground, richer 

 and deeper than that of any other Goatsucker's egg that I possess, 

 and is pretty thickly clouded and streaked with only slightly 

 brownish red. 



Dr. Jerdon says : " I have found the eggs of this species ; they 

 are like those of C. asiaticus, but larger and with less of the 

 salmon hue, more of a stone colour, and with very pale clay- 

 brown blotches." 



Lieut. H. E. Barnes, writing from Rajpootana, says : " I found 

 two eggs of Franklin's Nightjar on the 15th June. They were 

 deposited on the bare ground, under the scant shelter afforded by 

 a small tuft of grass." 



Mr. Davison says: "Close to Teaboo (where are situated 

 several hot mineral springs, from which the place derives its name, 

 which signifies in Burmese 'hot-water') there is some forest 

 similar to that which lines the road leading from Moulmein to 

 Amherst. This forest is very scanty, being composed of moderate- 

 sized deciduous trees, interspersed with thorny bamboos and 

 brambly shrubs, but with little or no undergrowth ; and in March, 

 both at Yeaboo and along the Amherst road, this forest presented 

 anything but a bright picture, most of the trees had lost their 

 leaves, and these with large quantities of bamboo-leaves and dry 

 and dead twigs lay scattered about ; in places a surface fire had 

 passed, leaving the ground black and burnt. 



" It was in such a piece of forest that, on the 10th of March, I 

 obtained a specimen of Caprimulgus monticolus, a female, which I 

 shot off her eggs. 



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