Fork-tailed Nightjars 549 



the evergreen forests and is apparently more nocturnal than the Nighthawks, as it 

 has been found spending the day in caves, issuing forth soon after sundown and 

 hawking for its food, at first flying at a considerable height, then nearer the ground. 



Fork-tailed Nightjars. In all of the remaining genera the rictal bristles are 

 pronounced and long, the first to be considered being a group of three genera 

 in which certain of the tail-feathers are more or less elongated, winning for these 

 birds the name of Fork-tailed Goatsuckers. In Macropsalis, the four species 

 of which are found in tropical South America, it is the lateral pair of tail-feathers 

 which are greatly lengthened, the others decreasing in length to the middle pair, 

 which are shortest. Thus in M. lyra, the largest species, the total length of the 

 bird is thirty-one inches and the length- of the lateral rectrices about twenty-seven 

 inches, while the middle pair are only about three and a half inches; the female 

 is quite similar to the male, but lacks the long outside tail-feathers. The genus 

 Hydropsalis, also of South America, is similar to the last except that the middle 

 as well as the lateral pairs of rectrices are elongated, the pair next to the central 

 pair being shortest. In the Argentine Fork-tailed Goatsucker (H. furcifer) 

 the total length is twenty inches, while the lateral tail-feathers are fifteen inches 

 long and the central pair seven and a half inches. It is a handsome bird, brown 

 varied with black above, paler beneath, with light rufous collar, white or fulvous- 

 spotted wing-coverts, and black rufous banded wings, while the outer rectrices 

 are black edged with white and the others much like the back. Durnford found 

 the species not uncommon in Buenos Ay res in spring and autumn, living on the 

 ground in damp situations when the grass is long and thick enough to afford 

 some slight cover, and generally observed in small parties. Its flight is noise- 

 less and performed by jerky, erratic movements. Professor W. B. Barrows also 

 observed it near Concepcion on the lower Uruguay, where he says it frequents 

 open or sandy spots in the woods, especially along the margin of streams, sitting 

 by day close on the ground, but at night flying about as noiselessly as a butterfly 

 and continually opening and shutting its beautiful tail, keeping up all the time 

 a very soft clucking, which is its only note, so far as he observed. Neither of the 

 above writers found the eggs, but Mr. O, N. Aplin found them in Uruguay and 

 describes them as being of a creamy pink marked with delicate lines and veins of 

 lilac. In the African Fork-tailed Goatsuckers (Scotornis),ot which two forms are 

 known, it is the central pair of tail-feathers that are greatly lengthened, while the 

 outer ones are shortest, or just the reverse of the condition in Macropsalis. 



Leone Goatsucker. Africa is also the home of a couple of genera, each 

 with a single species, in which certain of the wing-quills in the male are greatly 

 elongated, producing curious streamers which float behind them as they fly. 

 Thus in the rare Leone Goatsucker (Macrodipteryx longipennis) the ninth pri- 

 mary is enormously lengthened, being some seventeen inches long, while the 

 total length of the bird is only eight or nine inches. These long pennants have 

 the shaft bare except for the terminal five or six inches, when they are expanded 

 into a racket-shaped web. According to Heuglin, this shaft is not bare in 

 freely moulted specimens, while Dr. Sharpe expresses the opinion that these 

 elongations may be assumed only during the breeding season, as it is not often 



