CAPRIMULGUS EUROPtEUS. 
variegated with spots or waved lines of a cream-yellow colour, the inner vanes 
with moderately regular bars. Tail feathers bulf-orange, narrowly barred 
with umber-brown, the convexity of the bars towards the base of the tail. 
Besides the bars, the light spaces between them are profusely sprinkled with 
umber-brown spots and waved lines. Breast finely barred white and liver- 
brown. Belly and flanks rusty white, the flanks darkest, and both are marked 
with transverse liver-brown bars, not so closely set, however, as those of the 
breast ; feathers of tarsi cream-yellow. Eyes dark brown. 
Form, &c. — Bill subtriangular, towards frontal feathers depressed, towards 
tip compressed, narrow, and slightly curved. Wings long, pointed, and when 
folded reach nearly to the tip of the tail ; the second quill feather the longest, 
the first a little shorter, and the third rather shorter than the first, the fourth 
about an inch shorter than the third. Tail even, or very slightly rounded. 
Legs short, the upper and anterior portion of tarsus covered with feathers, 
elsewhere it is scutellated. The outer and inner toes connected to the 
middle one by membrane as far as the first joint ; claw of middle toe slightly 
curved and strongly pectinated ; the claws of the other toes short, much curved, 
and pointed. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Inches. Lines. 
Length from the tip of the bill to the 
point of the tail 10 0 
of the bill to the angle of the 
mouth 1 0 
of the wings when folded ... 7 7 
of the tail 5 0 
Male . — Colours not known. 
Inches. Lines. 
Length of the tarsus 0 9 
of the outer toe 0 4 
of the middle toe 0 7| 
of the inner toe 0 4 
hinder toe 0 2{- 
All the individuals of this species which I procured in South Africa were females, and most 
of them were killed near Cape Town, or in the Cape District. It is certainly of the same 
species as the Nightjar which periodically visits Europe. Many of the Cape Colonists main- 
tain that the various species of “ Naght uil” (night owl), as the birds of this genus are called by 
the Dutch, remain the entire year in the colony ; others affirm that they proceed to the northward 
on the approach of winter, and do not return till the following summer. With those who 
believe they are permanent residents I am disposed to agree, as I have more than once seen 
individuals in the middle of the winter. They all appear, each in its favourite locality, about 
dusk, and between that time and daylight next morning are generally to be seen actively 
engaged in capturing their food. 
