CAPRIMULGUS ASIATICUS. 



(THE COMMON INDIAN NIGHTJAR.) 



Caprimulffus asiaticus, Latham, Ind. Orn. ii. p. 588 (1790) ; Gray & Hardwicke, 111. Ind. 

 Orn. i. pi. 34. fig. 2 (1832) ; Sykes, Cat. J. A. S. B. iii. no. 30 (1834) ; Blyth, Cat. B. 

 lira. A. S. B. p. 83. no. 415 (1849); Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. p. 115 

 (1854); Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 419; Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 432; id. Nests 

 and Eggs, p. 97 (1873) ; Adam, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 371 ; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 12, 

 et 1875, p. 281 ; Ball, Str. Feath. 1874, p. 385 ; Butler, ibid. 1875, p. 455. 



The Indian Goatsucker, Kelaart ; Night-Hawk, Goatsucker, " Ice-bird" Europeans in 

 Ceylon (the latter name from the resemblance in the bird's note to a stone scudding on 

 ice). 



Bim-bassa, Ra-bassa, Sinhalese ; Pathekai, Tamils in Ceylon. 



Adult male. Length 8 - 9 to 9-1 inches ; wing 5 - 65 to 5 - 8; tail 4-0 to 4-2; tarsus 085; middle toe and claw 0-85 to 

 0-9; bill to gape 1-2. 



Iris deep brown ; eyelid light reddish yellow ; bill reddish or reddish brown, with the nostril and tips black ; legs and 

 feet brownish red, darker at the ends of the toes, claws dark brown. 



Light portion of head and upper surface cinereous ashy, finely and distinctly pencilled with brown, and the scapulars 

 and wing-coverts richly marked with buff-yellow ; centre of the forehead and crown striped with black, the 

 feathers edged with rufescent yellow ; back and upper tail-coverts pale cinereous, most of the feathers « ith a 

 narrow mesial black line, and the whole finely pencilled with brown ; scapulars with arrow-shaped velvety black 

 centres, bounded by broad, rich buff margins ; secondary wing-coverts with the terminal portions buff, paliug to 

 white at the edges ; quills and primary-coverts dark brown, the latter, together with the secondaries, barred with 

 reddish buff ; the primaries mottled with grey near the tips, the first with a white spot on the inner web (in some 

 with a corresponding external pale edge) and a similar one on both webs of the next three ; centre tail-feathers 

 cinereous, with narrow wavy cross bars ; remainder blackish, with wavy cross lines of reddish buff, the two outer 

 feathers with a terminal white spot (1 § inch in depth in old birds), the tip of the lateral feather nearly always with 

 some dark mottling and iis outer margin buff. 



Ear-coverts dark brown, beneath there is a narrow whitish rictal spot ; a white bar across the throat, divided by a 

 buff-mottled patch in the centre, and continued as a buff collar round the hind neck ; chest with the feathers 

 across the centre deeply tipped with pale buff ; breast, flanks, and sides of belly barred with brown on a buff 

 ground ; belly and under tail-coverts whitish buff, unbarred. 



Female. Length 8-4 to 8-6 inches ; wing 5-6* to 5-8. Bill paler than in the male, brownish olivaceous at the base and 

 gape : legs and feet brownish olive, claws brown. 



Upper surface similar to male ; quills paler, edges of primaries greyish near the tips ; spots on the outer web of 2nd, 

 3rd, and 4th quills buff, in some examples wanting altogether ; tail-spots not so large as in the male, about J of 

 an inch in depth, the lateral margin of the outer tail- spot sullied with brown, except in old birds. 



Young. Iris as in adult ; bill dusky olive-brown, the tip dark brown ; legs and feet brownish fleshy, palest on the 



sides of the tarsi. 

 Above paler or less marked with dark brown and black than in adults ; scapulars ha some broadly margined with 



buff, in others almost uniform with the back ; quills tipped with buff, the primaries apparently darker in the. 



male than in the female ; the white spots on the outer webs of the primaries more or less tinged with buff, as is 



also that on the inner web of the 4th quill ; outer margin of the terminal tail-spots washed with buff and mottled 



with brown; exterior of lateral tail-feathers broadly edged and indented with buff in those birds which have 



richly marked scapulars. 

 Chin and along base of bill whitish in some, this part being, as in the adult, variable in its marking ; under surface 



in the quite young bird fluffy, and the markings undefined in older examples ; the ground-colour is greyer than 



in adults ; under tail-coverts usually barred with brown. 



JS 7 ote. This species and its allies have the tarsus bare and the tail-feathers as in the last. 



