NIGHTJAR 41 



inch in diameter: against the side of this the nest is glued, so that the upper margin 

 of the nest is 011 a level with the upper surface of the branch. The nest itself 

 is half of a rather deep saucer, 175 inches in diameter, and about 0'6 in depth 

 internally. The nest is entirely composed of thin flakes of bark, cemented 

 together by the bird's saliva, and is about an eighth of an inch in thickness. The 

 egg is a very elongated oval, obtuse at both ends, and with little or no gloss. It 

 is white, with a slight greyish blue tinge, and measures 0'94 in length by 0'61 

 in breadth." 



THE NIGHTJARS. 

 Family CAPRIMULGID^E. 



Like the swifts, these birds have very wide and gaping mouths ; while their 

 plumage is mottled and vermiculated, very much resembling that of the owls, near 

 which group they have been placed in many classifications. Beyond the resem- 

 blance of their plumage, and the fact that they are crepuscular birds, coming out 

 to hunt for their prey in the twilight, there is, however, little in common between 

 the two groups ; the former being birds of prey, devouring chiefly animal food and 

 laying white eggs, mostly in a concealed position in the hole of a tree ; whereas 

 the eggs of the nightjars are laid in the open, and are more or less spotted and 

 marked. The number of both the primary quills and tail-feathers in the nightjars 

 is ten ; the palate is of the Passerine (aegithognathous) type ; and the third toe has 

 a comb-like appendage to the claw, similar to that of the herons and barn-owls. 

 The group may be divided into the two subfamilies Caprimulgince and Nyctibiince, 

 of which the latter contains only the single genus Nyctibius, while the former 

 comprises upwards of eighteen genera, with ninety-five species. 



In common with the rest of their kind, the true nightjars have 

 Tni6 Nigritjcirs. 



the broad beak thickly beset with . strong bristles of considerable 



length ; while they are specially distinguished by the difference in the sexes ; the 

 males having a large patch of white on the quills and at the end of the tail- 

 feathers, which are either absent altogether in the females, or are replaced by 

 rufous ones. The nestlings are thickly covered with down, and form an exception 

 to the general rule of young Picarian birds, which are naked when hatched. 

 To this genus belong most of the species of nightjars, including the British 

 Caprimiilgiis europceus. They are found nearly all over the world, inhabiting 

 both hemispheres, but never going very far north ; and the only locality where 

 they appear to be wanting is in some of the Eastern Pacific Islands. Of the two 

 European species, the common nightjar shown in the upper figure of our illus- 

 tration is a migrant from Africa, wintering in the Cape, and passing south 

 apparently by the Nile Valley and East Africa, as it has not yet been recorded 

 from the west coast. It visits Europe in summer, and breeds throughout the 

 greater portion of the Continent, reaching to the latitude of Archangel, and to 

 about 63 north latitude in Scandinavia. The plumage is of a dark, ashy- 

 grey colour, closely vermiculated with black ; the scapulars are longitudinally 

 streaked with black and ochraceous buff; quills with a rufous-buff spot on both 

 webs, the three outer primaries with a large white spot on the inner web ; two 



