THE NIGHTJARS 



1809 



opportunities for watching its move- 

 ments. Its flight is nearly as ir- 

 regular and as noiseless as that of a 

 butterfly, while its beautiful tail is 

 opened and shut in the same 

 manner as with the scissor-tailed fly- 

 catcher. Alighting frequently on 

 the ground, or on stones or roots, it 

 keeps up a continual but very soft 

 clucking, which is the only note 

 uttered. It was most often seen in 

 open grassy or sandy spots in the 

 woods, especially along the margins 

 of the streams. By day it sits close 

 on the ground, and, if disturbed, 

 only flies a few yards, though it 

 evidently sees well." Mr. O. N. 

 Aplin found the eggs of this species 

 in Uruguay; they were of a creamy- 

 pink color, delicately marked with 

 lines and veins of pinkish lilac, 

 something after the manner of bunt- 

 ing's eggs. "On the seventeenth 

 of March," he writes, "I saw a 

 male with the long tail feathers set- 

 tle on a post of a wire fence which 

 passed through part of the montt;* 

 it sat lengthwise to the line of fence. 

 The curious long swallow tail of the 

 male does not seem to incommode it 

 at all, as the bird can turn and twist 

 about in its rapid gliding flight in a 

 wonderful way, and accomplishes the 

 difficult aerial navigation of the 

 thorny montg with all the ease and 

 grace of our nightjar in an oak 

 wood." 



The single represent- 

 ative of this genus 

 {Podager nacundd} dif- 

 fers from all the preceding, in the 

 slight development of the bristles 



Nacunda 

 Nightjar 



* The Argentine term for the small woods 

 surrounding so many of the settlements on the 

 pampas. 



ARGENTINE FORK-TAILED NIGHTJAR. 

 (One-third natural size. ) 



