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384 EASTERN ETHIOPIA 



Baringo. These long feathers are only retained during 

 the breeding season, and they are used for display. 

 When wooing, the cock drops noiselessly on the ground 

 in front of the hen and moves the wings in such a way 

 as to wave the standards over his head in front of her. 

 It is a mistake to suppose that these long feathers are 

 moved independently of the wing ; like the other 

 secondaries their quills are fixed to the bone (Ulna). 



Selous found the racket-winged nightjar very common 

 along the river Chobe. He states that they lie very 

 close during the daytime, and when disturbed only fly 

 twenty or thirty yards, and again alight and lie close to 

 the ground. The hens lay their eggs on the bare 

 ground, and when sitting will almost allow themselves to 

 be trodden on before moving. On one occasion, " four 

 horsemen and about thirty Kaffirs walked past within 

 a yard of a sitting nightjar, in single file. " 



The Pennant-winged Nightjar has the seventh, 

 eighth, and ninth primaries prolonged, especially the 

 ninth. In some of the birds the quills measure 

 twenty inches, and the bird is only ten inches long ; in 

 the eventide they look like ghosts as they Hit in and 

 out of the long grass. Schweinfurth watched these birds 

 in the " heart of Africa," and observed that they make 

 their earliest appearance about a c^uarter of an hour after 

 sunset and as the twilight passes rapidly into thorough 

 night. For the purpose of catching insects they 

 generally wheeled in circles at no great distance from 

 the ground. The range of their flight was A^ery short 

 and extremely circumscribed. The antipathy of this 

 " aeronaut of the dusky evening " to the clear light of 

 day seemed very remarkable ; it kept itself to the 

 seclusion of the low brushwood ; often it would settle 

 itself on the ground in a pile of leaves to which its own 

 hue corresponded, and then it might almost be trodden 

 on before it could be stirred to flight. The disinclina- 

 tion of the nightjar for long flights when in full feather 

 is due to the hindrance such elongated pinions off"er 



