RUSSET-NECKED NIGHTJAR. 191 



every important particular with the description given 

 by Swainson of that bird, in his "History of the Birds 

 of Africa/' — "Jardine's Naturalists' Library," vol. viii., 

 p. 70: — Singularly enough Mr. Swainson seems to have 

 overlooked the fact that the European Nightjar has 

 three spots on the inner web of the three first primaries, 

 and has claimed for his bird this exclusive character. 

 Mr. Swainson gives eleven inches as the length of his 

 bird, which is rather shorter than that of C. ruficollis, 

 but the other and more important dimensions are the 

 same. 



There is another point of difference which I cannot 

 help thinking is accidental. Mr. S. says, "The first 

 primary quill is half an inch shorter than the second 

 and third, which are of equal length, and the longest, 

 while the fourth is an inch shorter, and the fifth is 

 one and one fourth inches shorter than the fourth." 



If the end of the above passage is transposed, and 

 read, "While the fourth is an inch and a quarter 

 shorter, and the fifth one inch shorter than the fourth," 

 the whole will apply with perfect exactitude, like every 

 other part of the description, to C. ruficollis. 



I have no account to offer of the nourishment, 

 habits, and nesting of this bird. But they are not 

 likely I think to differ much from its European and 

 closely-allied congener. There is the same wide mouth, 

 with its array of bristles, and the same comb to clean 

 them with on the claw of its middle toe. What a 

 beautiful adaptive provision is this comb. Looked at 

 through a lens, the teeth of the comb are seen to be 

 placed with perfect regularity, and are admirably 

 adapted to their evident use — to clean the bristles, an 

 act which Dr. Maclean tells me he has actually seen 

 performed by our Goat-sucker. . The bristles are required 



