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very difficult to perceive. They are also found reposing on stones and on open rocky ground. 

 In Gozo the country people have a way of snaring them with a noose at the end of a stick. I 

 have often seen these birds before sunrise, and again in the evening after sunset, hunting for 

 insects on the wing. They repass in September and October, at the same time as the Scops 

 Owl." Lord Lilford says (Ibis, 1860, p. 236) it arrives in small numbers in Corfu and Epirus in 

 April, but does not, he thinks, remain to breed ; and he found a small party of Nightjars at 

 Pagania in September 1857. It appears to be tolerably common in Greece during the summer, 

 and especially so during passage. Lindermayer says that it arrives between the 15th and 30th 

 April, and breeds in the hills, where he several times obtained its nest and eggs. It breeds 

 throughout Southern Germany, where it is found during the summer season, and is found in the 

 countries bordering the Southern Danube ; but Messrs. Elwes and Buckley do not appear to have 

 found it in Turkey proper, though it is doubtless found there. Professor von Nordmann states 

 that it is distributed everywhere in Southern Russia ; and Menetries records it from the Caucasus, 

 but remarks that four specimens obtained by him at Zouvant, two males and two females, had 

 no trace of white on the tail. 



Canon Tristram writes (Ibis, 1866, p. 76) that he several times met with it in Palestine after 

 the beginning of April, in the first week of which month he found it at Jericho. 



It visits Africa during the winter season, when it is common. In Egypt it is stated to be 

 met with only during migration, passing further south to spend the winter. Ruppell observed it 

 in Egypt and Arabia Petraea; Von Heuglin writes (Ibis, 1859, p. 339) that it was met with in 

 September on the Danakil, and in October on the Somali coasts ; and Dr. Brehm states (J. f. O. 

 1853, p. 452) that it arrives in Egypt and Nubia in September or early in October. In 1848 he 

 observed one at Wady Haifa on the 6th October ; in 1849 he saw it near Alexandria in October; 

 in 1851 he noticed it on the 4th September near Abu-Hamed, on the 15th September at New 

 Dongola, and on the 30th near Abu Simbil in Nubia. It arrives about the same time at Sudan, 

 where he observed it in 30° N. lat. ; and he killed one near Chartoum on the 11th September. 

 In North-western Africa it is found during winter, but does not appear to be very common. 

 Mr. Salvin writes (Ibis, 1859, p. 302) that he only once met with it in Algeria, at Kef Laks, 

 where an Arab brought one to him half-dead; and Mr. C. F. Tyrwhitt-Drake says (Ibis, 1867, 

 p. 425) that it is known to breed towards Ceuta, in Morocco. Finally, it is stated by Vernon 

 Harcourt (P. Z. S. 1851, p. 146) to straggle to Madeira; but Mr. Godman did not meet with it 

 there. 



In South- Africa there is said to be a distinct species, C. smithi, Bp., which, Mr. Sharpe 

 writes (Ibis, 1870, p. 427), "besides sundry differences in colour, wants altogether the white 

 spots on the wings and tail so conspicuous in the male of C. eurojoceus." I have not a sufficient 

 series of South- African specimens to determine whether C. smithi really is a valid species ; but it 

 appears to me to be very doubtful if such is the case. In Captain Shelley's collection are two 

 specimens with the sex unmarked, one of which, collected by Mr. C. J. Andersson on the Knysna 

 river, does not in the least differ in general coloration from European-killed specimens of C. euro- 

 paus, but has the white patch only on the second primary, and there is only a dull whitish tip 

 to one or two of the tail-feathers. The other specimen, from Durban, closely resembles pale 

 varieties of the female of our European bird. 



