CAPEIMULGUS KELAAKTI. 
339 
of the two following species, as it lies very close and does not repose in open spots like the Common 
N lgl D^Jerdon writes, in his ' Birds of India/ that “ it is now and then flushed from t h e w ( mds whcn l,«d,r ) g 
for game ; and more than one has fallen before the gun of the inexperienced sportsman, 
the lazy flapping having caused it to be mistaken for the Woodcock.” I have myself observed this pec ad 
lLv flapping which is not the usual mode of progression, at sunset, and several times have heard the stra* 
sound which the bird makes, resembling the beating of an immense fan or wing m t le an . w le ler 18 ^ ^ 
1 ti P motion of its ninions or by the utterance of a guttural note, I am unable to say ; but much as 
a mechanical effect, it is doubtless the result of some curious vocal power in the bird. Its food consists ajmos^ 
from their nests or in company with a young brood. 
Nidiflcation —Mr. Holdsworth remarks that the breeding-season about Nuwara Elliya commences m 
March and Apr 1 Its eggs appear to be seldom found ; and the only instance of their being taken that ever 
! I um ermj notice ™ related to me by a gentleman in H.putale, who intoned me that Ina eons some- 
toe. ntoenred them on the estate. In India the, are well known. In the Ni ghms and Central Prov.nees, 
aecordin/toMr. Hume', correspondent, in • Nests and Eggs,' it commences to breed ,» March and contone, 
to lav until August. The eggs are deposited " in a slight depression under a bush or tuft of grass ; but the, 
havc^becu found, Mr. Darisou relates, in a heap of ashes produced by the Burgas urmng wee* £ ^the held. 
The c -3 are two in number, and are said to be counterparts of those of the closely allied C. indicus they aie 
of a pale yellowish or salmon ground-colour, marbled with brown among blotches of a lighter shade, w 
sometimes resemble a darker tint of the ground-colour; they are long ovals in shape, and vary from 
to 1 * 2>1 inch in length, and from 0'8 to 0 - 9 inch in breadth. „ n ,, 
Mr. Rhodes Morgan on one occasion found the eggs deposited on a heap of ashes ; he describes them as 
of a " pinkish buff, blotched with pale violet-brown.” 
2x2 
