RU8SET-NEGEED NIGHT JAM. 103 



Salvaclori, "Fanna d' Italia," says, *'One individual was shot at 

 Inthaliless, on the south-west of Malta, towards the end of May, 1860, 

 and preserved by Mr. Wright. A second on May 12th., 1865." 



I have ventured to place among the synonymes of this bird that 

 of Scotornis trimaculatus , as it agrees in every important particular 

 with the description given by Swainson of that bird, in his ''History 

 of the Birds of Africa," — "Jardine's Naturalists' Library," vol. viii., 

 p. 70: — Singularly enough, Mr. Swainson seems to have overlooked the 

 fact that the European Nightjar has three spots on the irmer web of 

 the three first primaries, and has claimed for his bird this exclusive 

 character. Mr. Swainson gives eleven inches as the length of his bird, 

 which is rather shorter than that of C. ruficollis, but the other and 

 more important dimensions are the same. 



There is another point of difference which I cannot help thinking 

 is accidental. Mr. S. says, ''The first primary quill is half an inch 

 shorter than the second and third, which are of equal length, and 

 the longest, while the fourth is an inch shorter, and the fifth is one 

 and one fourth inches shorter than the fourth." 



If the end of the above passage is transposed, and read, "While 

 the fourth is an inch and a quarter shorter, and the fifth one inch 

 shorter than the fourth," the whole will apply with perfect exactitude, 

 like every other part of the description, to C. ruficollis. 



I have no account to offer of the nourishment, habits, and nesting 

 of this bird. But they are not likely I think to differ much from its 

 European and closely-allied congener. There is the same wide mouth, 

 with its array of bristles, and the same comb to clean them with on 

 the claw of its middle toe. What a beautiful adaptive provision is this 

 comb. Looked at through a lens, the teeth of the comb are seen to 

 be placed with perfect regularity, and are admirably adapted to their 

 evident use — to clean the bristles, an act which Dr. Maclean tells me 

 he has actually seen performed by our Goat-sucker. The bristles are 

 required as a fence for the large mouth, out of which otherwise many 

 an insect would slip away. But the bristles get clogged up, and the 

 God who made this bird has provided it with as perfect a comb to 

 clean them with, as is to be found on the table of any lady in Europe ! 

 I should like to know how such a provision could have been given by 

 "natural selection," or "variation," or by any other "aid to theory," 

 which Mr. Darwin or Dr. Asa Gray would assign as the means by 

 which this beautiful adaptation was produ.ced? To imagine that this 

 comb on the claw of the long middle toe is an accidental variation, is 

 to surrender common sense. Still more absurd would be the inference 

 that such a variation could have been produced by successive steps 



