f 
THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
specimen I shot on April 10, 1917, in the daytime at a place about twenty- 
five miles north of Adelaide, called Buckland Park. The bird was sitting 
on the ground, only flying up when I was within thirty yards. The locality 
was covered with tall scattered Ti tree {Melaleuca ericifolia). A comparison 
of this skin with the preceding shows that the latter is considerably more 
rufous than the Mallee bird, but the Buckland Park bird is a male, whereas the 
preceding is a female. Throughout the underside the dark markings and 
barring are darker and the light markings uniformly rufous. The central 
tail-feathers have large rufous spots which are quite absent from the Mallee 
bird. The white spot on the first primary in the Buckland Park bird is not 
circular, but a large blotch extending broadly to the edge of web, also most 
of the white spots on primaries have some rufous edging. I cannot recognise 
any pointed difference in size. Mr. F. E. Howe informs me that all the eggs 
obtained in the Mallee have the greenish hue attributed to E. argus. The 
probability is that the four skins herein noted represent the two species, 
that is, if one is justified in making two species out of this decidedly 
variable bird. I do not consider that one would be justified in separating 
them on the egg difference, viz., greenish in E. argus and cream in E. alhogularisJ^ 
Broadbent {Emu, Vol. X., p. 234, 1910) wrote : “ This is a common bird 
in the Cardwell district. It camps on the bare ground in the daytime, and 
at dusk flies over the open grass flats, catcliing moths. The edge of the scrub 
is its favourite hunting ground. I have sometimes shot four or five specimens 
at dusk near Cardwell. It is very Hawk-like in its flight. Common in the 
Cairns district, along river flats and scrub pockets, in the rainy season.” 
Campbell and Barnard (op. cit,, Vol. XVII., p. 17, 1917) record from 
the same locality that “ a few birds were flushed from the ground in 
stony places.” 
The following notes from Mr. Thos. P. Austin are very interesting : 
“ To anyone who is only out of doors during the day, the White- 
throated Nightjar would appear to be exceptionally rare. During the 
fifteen years I have lived here, only a half dozen of them have come 
under my notice during daylight, but while fishing along the banks of the 
Talbragar River, and at lagoons, shortly after sunset, the great numbers to 
be seen, makes it appear to be marvellous how so many escape notice during 
the day. To identify them I shot two one night, and found their 
stomachs full of large beetles of several species, one large mantis, grass- 
hoppers, moths, etc., etc. Only twice have I seen their nest. On October 
28th, 1910, my dog flushed a sitting bird from a fresh egg, on the side 
of a rocky ridge, on the edge of a big scrub, the egg being simply laid on 
eucalypt leaves. The other nest was near the bank of the Myall Lake, 
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