NOTES ON THE GEN US CAPRIMULGUS IN THE PUNJAB, 367 



a fairly numerous summer visitor arriving about the middle of May and 

 breeding m June and July. Here it frequents the more open hill sides 

 and nullahs and is not found in jungle. (Jour B. N. H. S. xii. 343). 



A pencil note by Andrew Anderson, the well known naturalist of the 

 seventies, in my copy, of ' Jerdon's Birds of India ' is my authority for 

 stating that Sykes' Nightjar breeds in the Murree hills. At Bannu 

 Magrath procured several in September probably on migration (Ibis 1909 

 253). In the Eastern Narra, Sindh, Doig recorded the bird as a permanent 

 resident and it is said to breed there from February to July (S. F. viii 

 372). Hume procured a single male on the extreme northern border of 

 Sindh, where the Indus river leaves the Punjab, on the 13th December. 



The above records suggest that Sykes' Nigtjar is a resident in the plains, 

 and a summer visitor to the hill areas of its range, the latter presumably 

 wintering in the plains with the resident birds. If this deduction is correct 

 I presume that it is a permanent resident in the Punjab ; it is in any case 

 not common. The only records which I can trace are those of the British 

 Museum Catalogue and a single bird obtained at the end of October near 

 Lahore by Currie (Jour. B. N. H. S. xxiv, 570). The Catalogue includes 



2 S Delhi (no date), $ Bhahawalpur (Feb. 14), $ J Ambala (Feb.), four 

 males and a female from Sirsa (February, July), all from the Hume Collec- 

 tion. 



I have only met with this species on three occasions, all in the bed of the 

 River Sutlej, one at Phillour on 10th May 1910, and a pair shot near Jella- 

 labad (Ferozepur) on 25th February 1912. 



These various dates for the Punjab support the assumption that the bird 

 is a permanent resident. The call is described by Gumming as like that of 

 a frog, 



THE COMMON INDIAN NIGHTJAR, CAPRIMULGUS 

 ASIATICUS ASIATICUS, Lath, 



The distribution of the Common Indian Nightjar is given in the Fauna 

 of British India series, "Birds", Vol. iii., 187 ; as from Sind and the Pun- 

 jab through India and Ceylon, and in Burma as far south as Moulmein. But 

 since that account was written the birds inhabiting Ceylon have been sepa- 

 rated under the name of C. asiaticus minor, Parrot (Orn. Monatsbr. 1907, 

 p. 170) and it is probable that when sufficient material is available the birds 

 of the remaining areas may require some division into sub-species. In the 

 meantime our Punjab birds must remain as C. asiaticus asiaticus. 



The species has lately been recorded from Southern Tibet, Mipi, Dibang 

 Valley, 4,800 ft. 13th May 1913, by Capt. Bailey (Jour. B. N. H. S., xxiv. 76). 



As regards the Punjab there is but little on record. In Hume's 'Nests 

 and Eggs' (2nd edition, Vol. iii, 48) Cock records a nest found at 

 Dharmsala and says " The bird does not remain with us during the winter, 

 but comes up about April and departs about August," and implies that it is 

 common. 



In the Catalogue of the British Museum I find the following specimeus 

 from the Hume collection, namely two males and a female from Gurgaon 

 (December and February) and a female from Sirsa (Dec. 14) which is re- 

 ferred to also in Stray Feathers, (vii. 169). 



Mr. A. H. Marshall, Indian Police, informs me that he shot a specimen 

 at Silanah jheel, Rohtak District, in September 1910. 



I have personally met with the species on two occasions. The first of 

 these was on the 20th November 1914 when 1 shot one from a party of 2 or 



3 which were resting in short grass amongst Uck plants in a small grove of 

 Kikur trees near the Otu jheel, Sirsa. I heard the characteristic call near 

 Chandighar in Ambala District on the nights of the 25th and 26th March 

 1916. 



