PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES :*;:. 







and fourth the white MM extend* across both webs ; thus a large white " mirror " 

 ifl formed. The tips of the primaries in the closed wing are of a dull dark silver, 

 irregularly barred with dark brown, and with dark brown shaft streaks. The middle 

 tail-feathers we silvery grey, irregularly barred and vermiculated with dark brown, 

 while the outer feathers are pale brown with heavy, blurred transverse ban of sepia. 

 The two outermost have broad white tips. The under are marked by a patch of 

 white in the centre of the throat, bordered by silvery grey and buff, and bars of 

 dark brown. The fore-breast is silver-grey, finely vermiculated with dark brown 

 and spotted with buff, while the breast and flanks are silver-grey barred with 

 dark brown. The abdomen and under tail-coverts are buff, barred with dark 

 brown. The female is slightly smaller and duller, and lacks the white spots on 

 the wings and tail. The juvenile plumage differs scarcely from the adult, but the 

 young male has the white wing and tail spots tinged with buff. [w. p. p.] 



a.- Distribution. During the summer months it is found generally in 

 suitable localities throughout the greater part of the Continent, up to about 

 lat. 63 N. in Scandinavia, but not quite so far north in Russia. In the Mediter- 

 ranean region it is, however, replaced by a smaller southern form, C. europcnu 

 meridionals, Hartert, while other representative forms occur in Asia. In the 

 British Isles it is a somewhat local summer visitor, owing to its preference for 

 commons, moorlands, and uncultivated ground, but ranges to the extreme north 

 of the Scottish mainland, and breeds in some of the Inner Hebrides ; while in 

 Ireland it nests in almost every county, but is most frequent in Munster and 

 Leinster, and scarce in W. Connaught and inland Ulster. During the winter 

 months its migrations extend across Africa to Cape Colony and Natal, while the 

 Asiatic forms winter in Arabia and India. [F. c. K. J. J 



3. Migration. A summer visitor, except to the Scottish isles, in most 

 of which it is only of irregular occurrence : due account also must be taken 

 of the very local distribution of the species in most parts of the country. 

 A nightjar was recorded from Kent on 15th April 1002, but the species is 

 seldom noticed in the British Isles until May, immigration being at its height 

 about the middle of that month, dwindling towards the end. The species 

 has been classed by the Migration Committee of the British Ornithologists' Club as 

 one of those arriving along the whole south coast of England, but first and chiefly 

 on the eastern half. But the migrations of this bird have been admittedly very 

 difficult to trace with any certainty, owing to its nocturnal habits. Autumnal 

 movement sets in soon after mid- August apparently, and the bulk of the birds have 

 VOL. II. 3 A 



