CAPRIMULGUS EUROP^US. 



variegated with spots or waved lines of a cream-yellow colour, the inner vanes 

 with moderately regular bars. Tail feathers butf-orange, narrowly barred 

 with umber-brown, the convexity of the bars towards the base of the tail. 

 Besides the bars, the light spaces between them are profusely sprinkled with 

 umber-brown spots and waved lines. Breast finely barred white and liver- 

 brown. Belly and flanks rusty white, the flanks darkest, and both are marked 

 with transverse liver-brown bars, not so closely set, however, as those of the 

 breast ; feathers of tarsi cream-yellow. Eyes dark brown. 



Form, &c. — Bill subtriangular, towards frontal feathers depressed, towards 

 tip compressed, narrow, and slightly curved. Wings long, pointed, and when 

 folded reach nearly to the tip of the tail ; the second quill feather the longest, 

 the first a little shorter, and the third rather shorter than the first, the fourth 

 about an inch shorter than the third. Tail even, or very slightly rounded. 

 Legs short, the upper and anterior portion of tarsus covered with feathers, 

 elsewhere it is scutellated. The outer and inner toes connected to the 

 middle one by membrane as far as the first joint ; claw of middle toe slightly 

 curved and strongly pectinated ; the claws of the other toes short, much curved, 

 and pointed. 



DIMENSIONS. 



Inches. Lines. 



Length of the tarsus 



of the outer toe 4 



of the middle toe 



'2 



of the inner toe 4 



hinder toe 2]- 



Inches. Lines. 

 Length from the tip of tlie bill to the 



point of the tail 10 K 



of the hill to the angle of the 



mouth 1 



of the wings when folded ... 7 7 



of the tail 5 



Male. — Colours not known. 



All the individuals of this species vvhicli I procured in South Africa were females, and most 

 of tliem were killed near Cape Town, or in tlie Cape District. It is certainly of the same 

 species as the Nightjar which periodically visits Europe. Many of the Cape Colonists main- 

 tain that the various species of " Naght uil" (night owl), as the birds of this genus are called by 

 the Dutch, remain the entire year in the colony ; others affirm that they proceed to the northward 

 on the approach of winter, and do not return till the following summer. With those who 

 believe they are permanent residents I am disposed to agree, as I have more than once seen 

 individuals in the middle of the winter. They all appear, each in its favourite locality, about 

 dusk, and between that time and daylight next morning are generally to be seen actively 

 engaged in capturing their food. 



