3^4 
EASTERN ETHIOPIA 
XXX 
Bariiigo. These long feathers are only retained during 
the breeding season, and they are used for display. 
When wooing, the cock drops noiselessly on the ground 
in front of the hen and moves the wings in such a way 
as to wave the standards over his head in front of her. 
It is a mistake to suppose that these long feathers are 
moved independently of the wing; like the other 
secondaries their quills are fixed to the bone (Ulna). 
Selous found the racket-winged nightjar very common 
along the river Chobe. He states that they lie very 
close during the daytime, and when disturbed only fly 
twenty or thirty yards, and again alight and lie close to 
the ground. The hens lay their eggs on the bare 
ground, and when sitting will almost allow themselves to 
be trodden on before moving. On one occasion, “ four 
horsemen and about thirty Kaffirs walked past within 
a yard of a sitting nightjar, in single file. ” 
The Pennant-winged Nightjar has the seventh, 
eighth, and ninth primaries prolonged, especially the 
ninth. In some of the birds the quills measure 
twenty inches, and the bird is only ten inches long; in 
the eventide they look like ghosts as they flit in and 
out of the long grass. Schweinfurth watched these birds 
in the “ heart of Africa,” and observed that they make 
their earliest appearance about a quarter of an hour after 
sunset and as the twilight passes rapidly into thorough 
night. For the purpose of catching insects they 
generally wheeled in circles at no great distance from 
the ground. The range of their flight was very short 
and extremely circumscribed. The antipathy of this 
“ aeronaut of the dusky evening ” to the clear light of 
day seemed very remarkable; it kept itself to the 
seclusion of the low brushwood ; often it would settle 
itself on the ground in a pile of leaves to which its own 
hue corresponded, and then it might almost be trodden 
on before it could be stirred to flight. The disinclina¬ 
tion of the nightjar for long flights when in full feather 
is due to the hindrance such elongated pinions offer 
