46 CAPEIMTJLGIDJE. 



the oviduct of the female which I shot. I mention this circum- 

 stauce, as I have never found more than two eggs iu any Nightjar's 

 nest. 



" Subsequently, on the 15th March, 1880, I found a second nest 

 with two eggs precisely similar, which measured I'l 6 by 0"85 and 

 1-23 by 0-87. 



"The first two eggs measured 1'2 by 0'9 and 1-15 by 0-89. 



" On the 19th April, near the foot of the Dawna Mountains, 

 Thoungyeen side, I found two fresh eggs of this species, iiushing 

 the bird and shooting it. There was no nest, and the eggs were 

 laid on the bare ground at the foot of a bamboo-bush. They are 

 stony pink, dinily clouded with obscure purple blotches, and 

 measure respectively 1'18 by 0-89 and 1-19 by 0-89." 



The eggs are of the usual Nightjar shape, very regular, some- 

 what cylindrical ovals, with both ends precisely, or almost precisely, 

 alike. The shell is very fine and smooth, excessively close-grained, 

 but very thin for the size of the egg. In some specimens it has a 

 fine gloss, in others it is much less conspicuous. The ground- 

 colour is a delicate creamy pink, and it is everywhere rather thinly 

 spotted, streaked, clouded, and marbled with very pale, somewhat 

 brownish purple, and very pale subsurface-looking inky grey. 

 Sometimes the brown has no tinge of purple in it ; in some eggs 

 the markings are pretty equably distributed ; in others they are 

 most abundant in a zone near one end all round the middle. 



The eggs, of which I have now ten, measure from 1'1.5 to 1"29 

 in length, by 0-79 to 0-91 in breadth. 



Caprimidgus andamanicus, Hume. The Andmium Nightjar. 

 Caprimulgus andamanicus, Swwie ; Hume, Cat. no. 110 bis. 



I myself only once met with the Andaman Nightjar, of which 

 we shot a single specimen, a male, on Jolly Boys, an island in 

 Macpherson's Straits, at the south of the South Andaman. 



Mr. Da\'ison remarks : — " I myself never saw this species in the 

 vicinity of Port Blair, though I frequently heard its note of tok, 

 tok, tok, during the night ; but on a small island near Stewart 

 Sound, between North and Middle Andaman, I saw a pair of them ; 

 they rose off the ground, flew low for a few yards, and then 

 squatted, always placing a bush or stone between them and me. 

 I followed tbemabout for some time, but although I got a couple 

 of snap shots 1 failed to secure a specimen. At Port Mouat, on 

 the 12th April, one of my men shot a female as she flew off her 

 nest ; the eggs, two in number, were laid at the base of a stone in 

 a slight natural depression among the dead leaves, some distance 

 iu the jungle. I did not see or even hear the note of any Capri- 

 mulgus on any of the islands of the Nicobar group." 



The eggs are the most beautiful Nightjars' eggs I have ever seen, 

 and differ from those of any other Indian species with which I am 

 acquainted. In shape they are very regular ovals ; one of them 

 only slightly cylindrical. 



