CAPRIMULGUS. 345 



white patch on each side of throat; some of the breast-feathers with 

 rather large, pale buff,, terminal spots ; lower breast,, flanks, and abdomen 

 buff, rather narrowly barred with brown, less closely barred posteriorly; 

 under tail-coverts very pale buff or white and unbarred ; inner primaries, 

 primary-coverts, and outer secondaries strongly barred with rich fulvous ; 

 first primary with a large white spot reaching shaft; second, third, and 

 fourth primaries each with a buff -margined white spot crossing both webs 

 and involving the included section of shaft; exposed portion of each of 

 the two outer pairs of rectrices with a large terminal white area, a dusky 

 wash near the tip ; rectrices barred basally with buff and dark brown. A 

 male from Mariveles measures : Length, 22S ; wing, 170 ; tail, 103 ; tarsus, 

 18; middle toe with claw, 25. 



Adult female. Differs from the male in lacking the terminal white 

 area on tail-feathers which are barred and mottled with pale buff and 

 dark brown; on the outer feather there is an ill-defined light buff area 

 at tip of inner web. A female from Mariveles measures : Length, 228 ; 

 wing, 164; tail, 100; tarsus, 18; middle toe with claw, 26. 



Young. Upper parts blackish brown, very finely vermiculated with 

 white and lacking the black blotches and fulvous edges to scapulars which 

 are present in the adult plumage; under parts about the same shade of 

 gray as in the adult but more finely and more uniformly mottled and 

 barred and without fulvous or buff spots on breast; white spots on throat 

 just indicated ; wings and tail similar to the adult. 



Eggs. Whitehead took two eggs of this species at Cape Engano, Luzon, 

 May 26, 1895, which he described as follows: "Shape elliptical oval; 

 ground-color pale creamy white, with very pale lavender-gray under- 

 markings and very pale brownish over-markings; the blotches and mark- 

 ings, none of which are very large, are unevenly distributed over the 

 whole surface; measurements 31 by 22 mm. The eggs were placed on 

 the sand just above high water mark among sea drift, which, in this 

 instance, consisted of huge tree trunks. Both birds were seen and iden- 

 tified beyond doubt." (Grant and Whitehead.) 



The gray nightjar appears to be confined to the vicinity of sandy or 

 shingle beaches and while abundant in the localities where it has been 

 discovered the species has been recorded from but few islands and the 

 female and young have been but recently described. The description of 

 the eggs was published two years before that of the female. 



Clarke says with feeling that the female "is not an easy specimen to 

 describe/' but it is much easier to describe a single specimen than to 

 write anything that will apply to the variations which occur in the 

 species. In using the descriptions given above considerable allowance 

 must be made for variation in the shacle of buff or fulvous; this refers 

 particularly to the scattered spots on breast, the broad edgings of scap- 

 ulars, and the rusty bars on primaries, primary-coverts, and secondaries, 



