PENNANT-WINGED NIGHT-JAIL 



Macrodipteryx Africanus, SWAINS. 

 PLATE V. 



Wings as long as the tail ; the quills alternately banded with 

 black and rufous ; between the primaries and secondaries, 

 in one sex, a very long oar-shaped feather, webbed only at 

 its extremity. 



Caprimulgus macrodipterus, Afzelius, Descrip. Sierra Leon, pi. 

 in ditto. C. longipennis, Shaw, Nat. Miss. pi. 265. 



THERE are a few birds whose structure is altogethei 

 so remarkable, and at the same time so destitute, as 

 it were, of analogical resemblances to others* that 

 the naturalist, unacquainted with their economy or 

 manners, is completely at a loss to account for their 

 peculiarity, and is obliged to content himself with 

 mere conjectural ideas why Nature should have made 

 them so dissimilar from all other birds. An in- 

 stance is now before us, in the famous long-shafted 

 goat-sucker, a bird first described by Afzelius un- 

 der the name of Caprimulgus macrodipterus^ but 

 which we shall now consider as the type of a sub- 

 genus in this extensive family, under the title of 

 Macrodipteryx. 



A glance at the plate will at once show, to the 

 most careless observer, the peculiarity of form, 

 which not only distinguishes this remarkable bird 



