190 
KUSSET-NECKED NIGHTJAR. 
spots on tlie throat, and the reddish collar from which 
it derives its name. C. Europceus is a very common 
bird in Malta during the vernal and antumnal migrations. 
Before the capture of this species, C. rujicollis was 
unknoAvn as a Maltese visitor.” 
C. rujicollis is apparently a rare and local bird in 
Europe, except Spain. It is not mentioned by Mr. 
Salvin, in his interesting “Five Month’s Bird-nesting 
in the Eastern Atlas,” or in Lord Lilford’s “Notes 
upon the Birds of the Ionian Islands,” published in 
the ^‘Ibis.” Neither is it mentioned by Count Miihle, 
or Dr. Lindermayer, as a visitor to Greece. 
In Mr. Tristram’s “Notes from Eastern Algeria,” 
however, I find the following, (Ibis, vol. ii., p. 374:) — 
“As evening drew near the Bed-necked Goat-sucker, 
{Caprhnulgtis rujicollis,) flitted about the glades, and 
the note of the Scops-Eared Owl floated on the air, 
Avith its plaintive ‘Maroof, maroof,’ from which it derives 
its local appellation.” It is also mentioned by Captain 
Loche as inhabiting the three provinces of Algeria. 
Dr. D. Antonio Machado, in his “Catalogo De las 
Aves observadas en Algunas provincias de Andalucia, 
Sevilla, 1851,” says of this bird, — “It inhabits the woody 
flat ground of the mountains; it appears in spring, 
and leaves again in October: very common. It has no 
nest, birt places its eggs in hollows in the ground, or 
under the shelter of some shrub. It frequents the 
roads where there is much horse or mule traffic, and 
the vulgar notion is that it feeds upon the dung Avhich 
it finds there; brrt it is much more probable that it is 
in search of the beetles Avhich live among it, and which 
are its principal food. 
I have ventured to place among the synonyrnes of 
this bird that of Scotontis trimaculatus, as it agrees in 
