NIGHTJARS. 



343 



The Leona 



Nightjar 



( Macrodipteryx 



lonr/ipennis). 



associated with the owls, but there is no real affinity between these moth- 

 catching birds and the rapacious birds of the night. Their nocturnal habits 

 are really the only character which they have in common. The young Goat- 

 suckers differ from those of other picarian birds in the fact that they are" not 

 hatched naked, but are covered with down, though they are not able to pro- 

 vide for themselves like most of the downy nestlings of other birds. The 

 eggs, also, are not white, but are double-spotted, an unusual feature in picarian 

 birds. No caprimulgine bird makes a nest, the eggs being laid upon the 

 bare ground. 



Africa possesses two curious genera of nightjars, which, in the breeding- 

 season at least, carry ornamental plumes. These are Macrodipteryx longi- 

 pennis of West Africa, and Cosmetornis vexillarius of South- 

 eastern Africa. In the former genus, the ninth primary- 

 quill is enormously elongated, and ends in a "racket." In 

 Cosmetm-nis, the seventh and eight primaries are elongated, 

 the ninth enormously, so as to produce a. train when the 

 bird is flying. Round Lake Nyassa and on the Zambesi, 

 this bird is a well-known object as it flies over the water in the evening. I 

 have received the following note from Miss Alice Werner, who was con- 

 nected with the Blantyre Mission. Having read some notes of mine on 

 Cosmetornis published elsewhere, 

 she comments oii them as fol- 

 lows : — 



" I have frequently seen the bird 

 — at Blantyre, in Angoniland (i.e. 

 on the Ntumbi plain, about thirty 

 miles west of the Upper Shire), 

 and in the neighbourhood of Mount 

 Milanje. The Manganja call it 

 'lurabe,' the Angoni 'gumbe.' 

 I see that Sir John Kirk says 

 that it was only from October to 

 January that the sir^gular pro- 

 longation of the wing feathers was 

 observed. 



" By a note in my diary, I find that I saw one at Blantyre on September 

 25th. I had seen another previously to this — perhaps a fortnight before, but, 

 unluckily, I did not make a note of it, and cannot remember the date — 

 certainly it was before the 25th of September, and I distinctly remember the 

 long wing feathers on both occasions. Seeing the bird outlined in black 

 against the sky (just after sunset, when the light was not quite gone) I took 

 it for a huge and grotesquely-shaped bat with an exaggerated, claw-like, pro- 

 longation at the end of the wing. I have never seen them in flocks — only 

 singly, or, at most, one rising shortly after the other, so that they might have 

 been a pair. While I was at Mr. John Moir's plantation of Lauderdale (at 

 Mount Milanje) last November, one of the natives brought up to the house 

 three young ' Lumbi ' which had been found (I think) in a hollow tree. They 

 were about the size of newly-hatched chickens, and nearly fledged — they 

 could not fly, but raised their wings (which were of immense length in pro- 

 portion to their bodies) straight above their heads, and ran along the floor 

 very quickly. We tried to feed them on chopped egg, soaked bread and 

 flies, but could not keep them alive more than a day or two. 



Fi^. 78.— Leona Goatsvcke-r (Macrodipteryx 

 longipeiiiiin). 



