48 CAPEIMrLGID^. 



all over with grey, and then above that more sparsely mottled 

 with a pale sepia-browu, slightly yellowish in some specimens ; 

 but in some eggs the motthngs are so fine and indistinct that unless 

 very closely looked into the egg appears to be of a uniform greyish- 

 cream colour, and indeed the extent, size, and comparative feeble- 

 ness of the markings vary very greatly in different specimens, 

 but the character of the egg never varies, always a very glossy, 

 more or less pale stone-grey egg, with in about half the eggs more 

 or less conspicuous pale sepia marblings. 



Caprimulgus asiaticus, Lath. Tlie Common Indian ^"Irjldjai-. 



Oaprimulgus asiaticus, Lath., Jerd. B. Inil. i, p. 197 ; Hume, Rough 

 Draft N. l^' ^, no. Hi. 



The Common Indian Nightjar, as Jerdon calls it (though I 

 should say that it was less common than either 0. indicus or C 

 montimlus), breeds pretty well throughout the plains of Continental 

 India, ascending in the spring and summer the lower ranges of the 

 Himalayas to the height of 5000 or 6000 feet. April and May 

 are the chief breeding months, but I have taken the eggs in July, 

 and so has Mr. F. E. Blewitt, both at Saugor and Raepore. 



Mr. E. Thompson writes : — " Breed in May. They are less 

 choice in their selection of ground for laying their eggs on. I 

 have found their eggs, two in number, in a quite unsheltered spot 

 in the middle of a dry pebbly nullah. At another time on a large 

 open spot under a large tree, and sometimes at the base of a dead 

 wall. 



" The eggs are long, cylindrical, and equal at both ends. The 

 colour a deep salmon, with bright pink blotches intermixed slightly 

 with earthy brown. The eggs are about one-third smaller in size 

 than those of 0. alhinotatas." 



Writing from Dhurumsala, Major Cock says :— " Pound a nest 

 on the ground with two eggs ; had watched the bird near the 

 place for some days before, and one day saw it fly up near a bank 

 in a thick dark piece of jungle. Searched about, and in a de- 

 pression of the ground among some dead oak-leaves found the eggs : 

 they \yere both the same shape, but varied very much in size. 

 The bird does not remain \vith us during the winter, but comes 

 up about April and departs about August; may often be seen in 

 the evening perched on a dead bough on the top of an oak ; in the 

 daytime always found on the ground." 



And he added : — " Breeds at Sitapur in March, April, May, 

 and June, among low scrub-jungle, laying its two eggs close to the 

 edge of some small bush or other jungle; no nest, not even a 

 depression in the ground, is the rule in the plains. The bird 

 sits very close and is hard to see ; unless you put her up by 

 walking over her you will not find the eggs ; the eggs themselves, 

 from their colour, would attract the eye at once were they not 

 covered by the bird." 



