344 AVES—SUB-ORDER CAPRIMULGI. 



" I see you give no description of the feathers, but your figure gives the 

 impression that the long wing-feathers are white, or, at least, distinctly light- 

 coloured. I would not be positive, but am almost sure, that in a specimen 

 shot by Mr. E. Laidlaw Thomson at Lauderdale (which was the only one I 

 ever had the opportunity of examining closely), these feathers were mottled 

 black and brown like the rest of the plumage. I remember seeing two, if 

 not three, in the bush near -the Chinunka River, along the road to Fort 

 Andei'son. 



" The tirst time I ever came across them was in Angoniland, passing through 

 the bush in the dark. I could not see them distinctly, and at first from their 

 noiseless flight took them to be bats, and was rather puzzled when assured 

 that they were not bats (melemi) but birds. As far as I can remember, they 

 always flew out of trees or bushes, and never from the ground." 



In these South-American nightjars there is no pectination of the middle 



claw, but powder-down patches are present on the sides of the body and on 



the breast. In tliis character they show an affinity to the 



"^^^ ^?**1^^ Podargi, and like the latter birds they lay their egg on 

 ^^ j^^^: an exposed branch or stump of a tree, as is proved by the 



~jj,.f-i-- interesting notes of Dr. Goeldi on Nyctibiiis jamawemis. 



He observed the nesting habits of this species in the pro- 

 vince of Bio de Janeiro, and writes as foUows : — 



"During certain months the svaaHei N. jamaicensis, called 'Uratao' by 

 the natives, like all the species of the group, is heard at ColoniaAlpina almost 

 every night. Its ' pu-hu-hu ' slowly pronounced, but with much energy, is a 

 constant nocturnal sound, quite enough to frighten a timid wanderer in the 

 solitary forest-patches. On the other hand, I was often astonished at the 

 resemblance of the voice of the large greyish N. grandis to the mewing of 

 a cat. In November, 1895, during moonlight nights, I had occasion to hear 

 it at Amapi regularly. The bird called continuously in the adjacent ' sirinbal ' 

 (the inundated and impassable avicenna-forests) which borders in a most 

 characteristic manner the lower course of the coast-rivers of Guiana. At 

 Oolonia Alpina (Rio de Janeiro) we got so well acquainted with N.jamaiceiwis 

 that the cry of the bird in the neighbourhood on moonlight nights was the 

 regular signal for us to take up our guns and go forth on our nocturnal hunt- 

 ing-trips. The bird is easily deceived by imitating its voice. Supposing the 

 call to be that of a rival, it leaves some inaccessible and invisible standpoint 

 in the interior of the forest, and is drawn nearer to a post on some isolated 

 dry gigantic tree, which, being in better light, oflfers more chance of a suc- 

 cessful shot. Even here, however, its wonderful protective colour, its singular 

 manner of perching in tlie direction of the axis of the branch and appearing 

 like a mere protuberance of it, while it retains a motionless position for a 

 quarter of an hour or more, render it very difficult to discern, except to very 

 practised eyes. My cousin, Andreas Goeldi, after long experience, is a perfect 

 Nyctibius hunter. Notwithstanding our familiarity with the habits of the 

 species of Nyctibius, for three years we were never lucky enough to discover 

 its breeding-place, though we made all ppssible efi'orts. Before I left Colonia 

 Alpina I strongly recommended the contmuation of these efforts to my 

 cousin, and likewise as regards Hydropsalis. At length, some months after 

 my arrival on the Amazons, I received the agreeable news, — the discovery of 

 an authentic nest of N. jumaicensis. My cousin's letter was accompanied by 

 detailed notes and photographs, and when, in August, 1895, I made a journey 

 back to Rio de Janeiro, 1 had, on a short visit to Colonia Alpina, the oppor- 



