318 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



and in tte Spanish peninsula, though it has occurred several times near 

 Marseilles and in other localities in the extreme south-east of France. It 

 has also been twice obtained on Malta, and is said to be a regular summer 

 visitor to the Canaries. Its winter- quarters are unknown; but may pro- 

 bably be in some of the oases in the Sahara. In its habits it is not known 

 to differ from the Common Nightjar; and, like that species, it lays two 

 eggs on the bare ground, which can scarcely be distinguished from those 

 of the European bird. It may be distinguished from the Common Night- 

 jar by the colour of the nape, which is chestnut-buff instead of grey; 

 but in other respects the two species very closely resemble each other, 

 though the Red-necked Goatsucker is slightly the larger bird, and is also 

 much more buff on the wing-coverts and on the underparts. In this 

 species the female as well as the male has the two outer tail-feathers on 

 each side broadly terminated with white, and both sexes have the large 

 white spots on the three outer primaries. 



The occurrence of this bird in autumn on the east coast of England is 

 very extraordinary. A summer visitor to Spain might attach itself to a 

 party of migrants from Africa, flying north in spring, and thus overshoot 

 its mark, and arrive with its fellow travellers on the south coast of Eng- 

 land. Most of the accidental visitors to the east coast of our islands in 

 autumn are stray migrants from Siberia, and scarcely a year passes with- 

 out instances of the kind ; but there is no stream of migration northwards 

 in autumn in any part of Europe. From Eastern Europe there is a stream 

 flowing westward in autumn ; but from Western Europe the only line of 

 migration at this season of the year is from north to south. We must 

 therefore assume, if the occurrence of this species in our islands be a fact, 

 of which there does not seem to be any room to doubt, that the individual 

 in question most probably migrated from West Africa, in the company of 

 a party of Common Goatsuckers from Northumberland, in the preceding 

 spring. We may assume that it passed the summer near the breeding- 

 grounds of its cousins, but fell a victim to some sportsman a few weeks 

 after shooting had commenced. 



