CAFBUIULGUS GLIMATUBUS. 



105 



Caprimulgus climaturus, the African Long-tailed Nightjar, is men- 

 tioned to me in a letter by M. Dubois, of Brussels, as having been 

 accidentally captured in Europe. 



Mr. Swainson has separated the Nightjars into two groups. In that 

 for which he retains the name of Caprimulgus , the two lateral toes 

 of the foot are of the same length; in the other the inner toe is longer 

 than the outer, and these he has classed under the generic name 

 Scotornis, and it is to this group that Caprimulgus climaturus belongs. 

 It is here I think that classifiers err. There is no family so well 

 marked as a family as the Nightjars. In colour they so much resemble 

 each other, that it is impossible to designate by this character alone 

 one species from another. Why then divide the genus? Because some 

 few members of the family have a slight difference in the lateral toes, 

 surely we have no right to complicate their terminology by dividing 

 the genus! So long as their structure, habits, and ornamentation are 

 similar, a slight deviation in the length of a toe is, with all deference 

 to Mr. Swainson, insufficient to constitute generic distinction. 



The claims of C. climaturus as a European species are, I think, too 

 slight to justify me in introducing it into this work, further than by 

 the present notice. It is not included in the Hand List of Gray as 

 European. 



Foot of Eusset-necked Isightjar, slightly enlarged, 



VOL. IV. 



