CAPKIMULGUS ATEIPENNIS. 341 



Young (male of the year). Wing 6 - 6. 

 B ill and feet paler than in adult. 



White tail-spots smaller than in adults, the black running out on the outer web much further than on the inner ; the 

 outer margin of the white spot mottled with brown ; throat-bar as in females. 



Note. The section to which this species and one or two others in India belong is characterized by having the two outer 

 tail-feathers in the male terminated with white and the tarsus feathered. 



Ohs. Layard speaks of C. mahrattensis, in conjunction with C. asiaticus, being very abundant in the vicinity of Colombo 

 and throughout the Southern Province. As there is no other Nightjar besides the latter which is common, or 

 even found, in the districts named, it follows that C. mahrattensis was mistaken for the present species, as 

 Mr. Holdsworth (loc. cit.) has already suggested. Mr. Hume points out (' Stray Feathers,' 1873) that Ceylon 

 specimens do not agree over well with Nilghiri ones. 



Distribution. — This fine Nightjar is a denizen more or less of the entire sea-board of Ceylon, and extends 

 into most of the inland districts, being very numerous in all parts which are clad with forest or are even 

 moderately well-wooded. Mr. Holdsworth does not record it from Aripu on the north-west coast ; but it is 

 abundant in parts of the Jaffna peninsula, and I have met with it on the coast at Illepekadua, north of 

 Mantotte, and at Pomparipu to the south of it ; so that I imagine it is simply locally absent from the open 

 country near the Pearl station, and probably an inhabitant of the adjaceut interior. It is very numerous 

 in the northern forest-tract and around Trincomalie, in the wooded districts of the south-west from Kalatura 

 round to Tangalla, and in the jungle-country north of Kattregama. The same may he said of the country north 

 of Kurunegala and many parts of the Western Province, although I found it conspicuously absent from most 

 parts of Saffragam. It ranges into the hills up to an altitude of about 3500 feet, at which elevation I have 

 seen it in Hewahette, and in Dumbara it is common. Mr. Parker does not record it in his letters to me from 

 the Uswewa district ; but I have no doubt that it is found there. 



On the mainland, the Ghat Nightjar, as it is styled by Jerdon, is found in various parts of the south of 

 India, to wit, on the Malabar coast and in the Ghats of the north of the Carnatic. It is tolerably common 

 in the Nilghiris ; hut Mr. Bourdillon has not procured it in the Travancore hills, nor Mr. Fairbank in the 

 Palani ranges, which proves that it is a bird of local distribution in the peninsula. 



Habits. — This species inhabits dry forest, low jungle, scrub, and wooded tracts in semicultivated country. 

 It is very partial to the " cheena "-woods in the Galle district, and similar secondary jungle in the east and 

 north of the island, such haunts affording it secure shelter whilst it roosts on the ground, and from which it 

 sallies out at dusk, settling in roads, pathways, or any bare spaces in the woods. I have always observed that 

 it avoids localities in which there are not large trees, which habit is exemplified in its locating itself in numbers 

 about the outskirts of the cinnamon-gardens at Colombo, while it does not haunt the open bushy gardens them- 

 selves, where the next species is so common. It comes out a little later than the Small Nightjar, first of all flying 

 up to a low stump or branch and uttering its curious call, like the striking of a hammer on a thin plank ; 

 as soon as it is heard this cry is answered by its companions, and in a few minutes these notes resound on 

 all sides and are continued until it is dark enough for the birds to take wing in pursuit of the myriads of 

 beetles and other insects which throng the calm air of a tropical evening. This loud note is generally preceded 

 by a low grog, grog-grog, which can only he heard when one is close to the bird. It is a gluttonous feeder, 

 its stomach being generally crammed with beetles or winged termites before dark, which it captures with a 

 powerful swooping flight, often sailing along with very upturned motionless wings. It is just as fond of 

 sitting on roads and paths as the next species ; but it is not so tame, and will not suffer itself to be almost 

 kicked as it will. The Tamils in the north of Ceylon call it the "roadside bird" from this habit, and have 

 a strange superstitious notion that it has the power of plucking out the eyes of their cattle ; but they do not 

 seem to be able to account for the fact that there is no ocular testimony of this objectionable habit ever having 

 been put into practice ! It is noteworthy that this Nightjar perches continually on the tops of small dead 

 branches of low trees ; and once I think I saw it sitting in a diagonal manner, though not quite transversely, 

 across a branch, as an ordinary Passerine bird would have done. 



Nidification. — In the west of Ceylon the Jungle-Nightjar breeds during the latter part of the dry season 



