690 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
surface, so that it may possibly represent the species bowvier?. The likelihood 
is, however, that it is the same as the next, and Sclater in giving the distribu 
tion of the species as Cameroon to Gaboon adds “perhaps Liberia (Biittikofer). 
Scotopelia ussheri Sharpe. Rufous-backed Fishing Owl 
Scotopelia ussheri Sharpe, Ibis, ser. 3, vol. 1, p. 101, pl. 12, 1871: Fanti, Gold Coast. 
Length about 20 inches; above uniform rusty brown, paler below; wings and tail pale yellow- 
ish brown with black cross-bands; bill yellowish. West Africa. 
A female from Mt. Gallilee, taken by Stampfli, is supposed to have been 
this species (Biittikofer, 1889, p. 116). 
CAPRIMULGIFORMES 
CAPRIMULGIDAE Goatsuckers 
Caprimulgus natalensis accrae Shelley. Gold-Coast White-tailed Nightjar 
Caprimulgus accrae Shelley, Ibis, ser. 3, vol. 5, p. 379, 1875: Accra, Gold Coast. 
A small nightjar, mottled grayish brown, buffy, and black, the crown with broadly striped 
feathers; a series of more or less quadrate or triangular black spots on scapulars; throat white; 
a large white spot on the three outer primaries at about two-thirds their length; entire outer web 
and terminal half or more of inner web of the two outer tail-feathers white. Liberia and Gold Coast. 
Throughout much of Liberia it is probable that nightjars of all kinds are 
rare or largely absent, at least in the wetter times of the year. It is hard to 
see how a ground-resting bird could find a dry spot for its all-day repose in the 
rainy season, or how a ground-nesting species could survive attacks from the 
myriads of ants that swarm over the forest floor or on open areas. Probably 
for these reasons, this species where found is local, and prefers more or less 
barren places. Biittikofer evidently found it scarce, and notes two specimens 
from Buluma, near Fisherman Lake, Cape Mount, where in the evening on 
barren ground it could be easily approached; another from Mt. Olive with 
white markings on the ends of the two outer pairs of tail-feathers, is later (1889, 
p. 156) recorded under Caprimulgus cinnamoneus or inornatus while C. fossii 
is included in the Liberian list on the basis of the old identification of Hartlaub, 
and later copied by Chubb. Doubtless all these names refer to the one form 
here treated. Although I spent many evenings in different places on our jour- 
ney especially on the lookout for nighthawks or other crepuscular species, I 
quite failed to see a single bird. It was not until our return to the coast in 
November that specimens of this species were secured, one November 7, the 
other on the 17th, on the roads outside Monrovia. Dr. Shattuck and Mr. Whit- 
man who secured these specimens, several times saw nightjars fly up from the 
road in the light of the automobile lamp, and the first was startled from a 
similar station in early morning. Lowe (Bannerman, 1912) secured two at 
Nana Kru on the south coast, on January 4 and 12, 1911, respectively, where 
he found them “ among grassy slopes sitting on dark stony ground.” No doubt 
the comparative barrenness of the roads and the stony slopes offers the birds 
