SPOTTED NIGHTJAR 203 
SPOTTED NIGHTJAR 
Eurostopodus argus 
Two kinds of true Nightjars or Goatsuckers are 
known to occur in Victoria, the White-throated and 
the Spotted. The names do not help much, for both 
have a white gorge, which, however, may be more 
or less broken in the White-throated bird, but is 
uninterrupted in the present species. The Spotted 
Nightjar is hy far the lighter-coloured bird, having 
the belly (which is chestnut) barred ; the White- 
throated Nightjar has no bars on the belly. Further 
it would seem that the White-throated bird inhabits 
chiefly the forest country of Gippsland, while the 
Spotted Nightjar has its home in the Mallee and drier 
northern districts, occasionally coming on to the 
Western Plains and even to the neighbourhood of 
Geelong in summer. But both kinds of Nightjar 
are exceedingly rare birds. 
Mr. Mulder tells me that in forty years' experience 
he has only seen three specimens from Geelong (of 
which one is in his collection), and all of those were 
shot in 1889 ; one of them by the late Mr. Smith, 
an enthusiastic naturalist, on the Moorabool near 
Batesford. I saw in May, 191 2, a specimen which 
Mr. Harry Quiney tells me was shot on April 27th, 
191 2, by Mr. G. L. Dennis, at Eeyeuk, Mortlake. 
It was flushed at a Quail shoot. In Mr. Quiney's 
