120 NIGHTJAR. 



the nape of the neck; chin and throat, mottled with two large 

 white oval spots, which nearly converge together down the 

 middle, and dull yellowish orange and black, the latter extending 

 backwards round the neck in a sort of collar; breast, pale 

 yellow brown, with numerous bars of darker brown and orange; 

 back, a mixture of orange, yellow, brown, and grey, beautifully 

 pencilled with rich dark brown, the shafts margined as 011 

 the head. 



The wings expand to the width of about one foot nine 

 inches; greater and lesser wing coverts, mottled as the back; 

 primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, dark brown, spotted with 

 yellowish brown; the three first feathers have a well-defined 

 oblong patch of white on the inner web, near the tip; the 

 first is shorter than the third, the second a little longer than 

 the third, and the longest in the wing. The tail, of ten 

 feathers, has the middle ones freckled with grey and yellowish 

 brown, with seven or eight dark zigzag transverse bands; the 

 two outer feathers are dark brown, barred with yellowish 

 brown on both webs, and the ends pure white; the legs, which 

 are partly feathered in front, the toes, which are small in 

 proportion to the size of the bird, and the hinder one rever- 

 sible, and the claws, dark orange brown; the middle claw is 

 flattened on the inner edge, and the margin is pectinated, 

 forming a sort of comb of seven or eight teeth: these teeth 

 point forwards, and not backwards, which is against the general 

 supposition that they are intended for holding the insects the 

 better. Here, as in so many other instances, we are still in 

 the dark. The toes are connected by a membrane as far as 

 the first joint. 



The plumage of the female is more subdued and blended, 

 darker, with less of the grey and ferruginous, and the white 

 markings have a tinge of yellow. The wings want the white 

 spots ; the two outer feathers of the tail are without the white 

 at the ends. 



In the young the tail does not attain its full length before 

 the first moult. They are at first covered with grey down, 

 darker above and paler beneath. 



