LARGE-TAILED NIGHTJAR. 
and edged Avith buff, becoming paler on the median and greater series, which have 
pale frecklings and rather broad white tips to the feathers ; bastard-wing, primary- 
coverts, and quills marked with ferruginous-buff on both webs, the outer primary- 
quiUs uniform black towards the tips, which have pale motthngs, and a white spot on 
the inner web of the first, or outer primary which occurs on both webs of the following 
three, the innermost secondaries much paler and very finely mottled vdth whitish ; 
rictal bristles white at the base and black on the apical portion ; chin and sides of the 
face dark brown, freckled with buff becoming ferruginous on the latter ; middle of 
throat white with black tips to the feathers ; sides of the neck black fringed with 
buff at the tips of the feathers ; fore-neck and breast dark brown finely vermiculated 
with whitish and some of the feathers somewhat broadly margined with white at 
the tips ; abdomen, sides of the body, under tail-coverts, and under wing-coverts 
brown barred with buffy-white ; under-surface of quiUs and tail dark brown, marked 
more or less on the basal portion with a blotch of white on the quills and white tips 
to the outer tail-feathers. Eyes brown ; feet brown ; bill brown, tip black. Total 
length 300 mm. ; culmen 11, wing 190, tail 150, tarsus 16. Figured. Collected 
on Melville Island, Northern Territory, on the 29th of May, 1912. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male, but the outer-web of the primaries lighter. 
Nestlings have the feathers on the upper-surface marked with reddish-buff and dark brown ; 
the under-surface barred brown and dirty white. 
Nest. None made ; the eggs are deposited on the ground. 
Eggs. Clutch two, ground-colour pinkish-stone, with underlying spots of lavender or 
grey. (Cairns, October.) 
Breeding-season. September to November. 
Confined to the far north there is practically no life-history known of this 
member of the typical Caprimulgine forms. 
Gould wrote : “ This, the only true Caprimulgus known to inhabit Australia, 
is, I beheve, identical with the C. macrurus of Horsfield, whose specimens were 
procured m Java, while those I possess were obtained at Port Essington, where 
the bird is moderately plentiful ; it is also found in Southern India, hence 
it has an unusually wide range of habitat. It frequents the open parts of the 
forest, and is strictly nocturnal ; it mostly rests on the ground on the shady 
side of a large tree close to the roots, and if disturbed several times in succession 
takes to the branch of one of the largest trees. I have never seen the eggs 
of this species, but I possess a young bird apparently only a few days old, which 
Gilbert found lying under a shrubby tree, without any nest or even a blade 
of grass near it ; the httle creature was so similar in colour to that of the ground 
upon which it was lying, that it was with difficulty detected, and he was only 
induced to search for it from the very peculiar manner in which the old bird 
rose, the reluctance it evinced to leave the spot, and its hovering over the place 
it had risen from, instead of flying off to the distance of nearly a hundred yards, 
as it usually does.” 
I give here J. P. Rogers’ notes made on Melville Island : “ Oct. 10, 
1911. Cooper’s Camp. Since coming here I have heard a bird in the man- 
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