CAPRIMULGrUS ATRIPENNIS. 
341 
Young ( male of the year). Wing C'6. 
Bill and feet paler than in adult. 
White tail-spots smaller than in adults, the black running out on the outer web much further than on the inner ; the 
outer margin of the white spot mottled with brown ; throat-bar as in females. 
Note. The section to which this species and one or two others in India belong is characterized by having the two outer 
tail-feathers iu the male terminated with white and the tarsus feathered. 
Ols. Layard speaks of O. mahrattensis, in conjunction with G. asiatieus, being very abundant in the vicinity of Colombo 
and throughout the Southern Province. As there is no other Nightjar besides the latter which is common, or 
even found, in the districts named, it follows that 0. mahrattensis was mistaken for the present species, as 
Mr. Holds worth (Joe. cit.) has already suggested. Mr. Hume points out (‘ Stray Feathers, ’ 1873) that Ceylon 
specimens do not agree over well with Nilghiri ones. 
Distribution.— This fine Nightjar is a denizen more or less of the entire sea-hoard of Ceylon, and extends 
into most of the inland districts, being very numerous in all parts which are clad with forest or are even 
moderately well-wooded. Mr. Holdswortli does not record it from Aripu on the north-west coast j but it is 
abundant in parts of the Jaffna peninsula, and I have met with it on the coast at Illepekadua, north o 
Mantotte, and at Pomparipu to the south of it ; so that I imagine it is simply locally absent from the open 
country near the Pearl station, and probably an inhabitant of the adjacent interior. It is very numerous 
in the northern forest-tract and around Trincomalie, in the wooded districts of the south-west from Kalatura 
round to Tangalla, and in the jungle-country north of Kattregama. The same may be said of the country north 
of Kurunegala and many parts of the Western Province, although I found it conspicuously absent from most 
parts of Saffragam. It ranges into the hills up to an altitude of about 3500 feet, at which eleva ion I have 
seen it in Hewahette, and in Dumbara it is common. Mr. Parker does not record it m his letters to me from 
the Uswewa district ; but I have no doubt that it is found there. 
On the mainland, the Ghat Nightjar, as it is styled by Jerdon, is found in various parts of the south ot 
India, to wit, on the Malabar coast and in the Ghats of the north of the Carnatic. It is tolerably common 
in the Nilghiris ; but Mr. Bourdillon has not procured it in the Travaneore hills, nor Mr. hair bank in the 
Palani ranges, which proves that it is a bird of local distribution in the peninsula. 
Habits. — This species inhabits dry forest, low jungle, scrub, and wooded tracts in semicultivated country. 
It is very partial to the " chcena "-woods in the Galle district, and similar secondary jungle in the cast ant 
north of the island, such haunts affording it secure shelter whilst it roosts on the ground and from which it 
sallies out at dusk, settling in roads, pathways, or any bare spaces in the woods. I have always observed m 
it avoids localities in which there are not large trees, which habit is exemplified m its locating itself m numbers 
about the outskirts of the cinnamon-gardens at Colombo, while it does not haunt the open bushy gardens them- 
selves, where the next species is so common. It comes out a little later than the Small Nightjar, fiist ot a 
up to a low stump or branch and uttering its curious call, like the striking of a liammei on a t m p an - , 
as soon as it is heard this cry is answered by its companions, and in a lew minutes these notu ltsouiu on 
all sides and are continued until it is dark enough for the birds to take wing iu pin suit o c y ^ 
beetles and other insects which throng the calm air of a tropical evening. This loud note is geneia y P^tti 
by a low f/rog, grog-grog, which can only be heard when one is close to the bird. t ; is a g u onous ee : er, 
its stomach being generally crammed with beetles or winged termites before dar ', n uu i cap uies wi i a 
powerful swooping flight, often sailing along with very upturned motionless wings. It is just as fond ot 
Sting 01 roads and paths a, the next specie,; but it is no. so t.me, and noli no. suffer rtself to be almost 
kicked a, it „m. The Tamils iu the north of Ceylon call it the “ roads, de bird" from In, hah. and have 
a strange superstitious notion that it has the power of plucking out the eye, of then cattle , but they do not 
seem to be able to account for the fact that there is no ocular testimony ot this objections lie habit ever having 
bee, put into practice ! It is noteworthy that this Nightjar perches continually on the tops of small dead 
branches of low trees; and once I think I saw it sitting in a diagonal manner, though not quite transversely, 
across a branch, as an ordinary Passerine bird would have done. 
Nidification.-In the west of Ceylon the Jungle-Nightjar breeds during the latter part of the dry season 
