368 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVII. 



It is not clear from the above whether this Nightjar is a permanent 

 resident or merely a winter visitor to the plains and its range in the Hima- 

 layan foot hills should surely be extended. 



The call is well described as the sound made by a stone skidding over 

 ice and is syllabised by Colonel G. F. L. Marshall as "Chak-Chalc Char-r-rk 

 and by Jerdon as tyook-tyooh-tyook. The latter adds that the bird when 

 flushed rises with a low chuckle. 



FRANKLIN'S NIGHTJAR, CAPRI MULGU8 MONTICOLA, Franklin.. 



Franklin's Nightjar is found throughout a large portion of the plains of 

 India, throughout the Lower Himalayas, in portions of Burma and in the 

 south of China. 



As regards our area the information is very deficient. At Thall, Rattray 

 states that it is common and a permanent resident, and that he found it 

 breeding plentifully (Jour. B. N. H. S. xii, 343). 



A note by A. E. Jones (Jour. B. N. H. S. Vol. xxvi. 614) warrants the- 

 assumption that it breeds near Simla. 



The British Museum Catalogue includes the following specimens from 

 the Hume collectii>n ; two females and one immature bird from Delhi, male 

 and female from Gurgaon district, three females and one male from Sirsa 

 (all the above without dates), a female from Simla (March) and a male 

 from Simla (April 15). Certain records by Currie (Jour. B. N. H. S. Vol. 

 xxiv, 604) I omit as the birds were not fully identified. 



Franklin's Nightjar, as it so happens, is the member of the genus with 

 which I am best acquainted in the Punjab. 



So far as I have observed the bird, and confirmed my identifications with, 

 specimens, the bird is a regular autumn passage migrant in some numbers, 

 arriving and leaving suddenly, and being very local in its appearance. On 

 these occasions it is confined to patches of ground where grow large clumps 

 of the familiar 'Sirkana' or Pampas grass, whether such patches are growing 

 on open sandy plain, around the edge of some jheel or tank or amongst the- 

 embankments of one of the larger railway bridges over our larger rivers. 

 One such locality may be found full of the birds while similar ones around 

 are empty. The only one of these patches of which I have been able to 

 ascertain particulars for more than one year is visited annually, so it is 

 possible that the birds follow definite lines of flight. 



It is perhaps worth while giving details of my observations in case other- 

 observers in the same localities can supplement them. 



I have omitted a number of records of single birds, which although they 

 were probably of this species, were not definitely identified as such. 



Ferozepore District, 1912. 



Auo'. 6th. — R. Sutlej bridge. 4 flushed and $ shot in a patch of thick 

 grass jungle by pools of water at one portion of the- 

 embankments. 



10th — Another female shot from the same patch. 



25th — Some still about in the same place. 



Hissar District, 1914. 



July 24th. — Many reported to me at Hissar. 



26th. — Great numbers found in a patch of bush jungle in the Govern- 

 ment Bir near some flood water from the canal ; there 

 were none in other patches of similar ground. None were 

 found in this place when I went again on 1st August. 



Aug. — An unusual number of Nightjars noted singly during the- 



month, but none definitely identified. 



