THE BIRDS OF LIBERIA 691 
undisturbed conditions for rest which would not be the case in the forests or 
in the cultivated areas. 
Scotornis climacurus (Vieillot). Long-tailed Nightjar; ‘‘Night-bird”’ 
Caprimulgus climacurus Vieillot, Galérie Ois., vol. 1, p. 195, pl. 122, 1825: Senegal. 
Length about 14.5 inches of which the tail is about 11; finely mottled above with black on a 
rusty-brown ground, sometimes with an obvious rusty collar; white tips of outer wing-coverts 
forming a wing-bar, the other wing-coverts more or less white-tipped; below, pale brown mottled 
or banded with dark brown; outer tail-feather with white tip and outer edge, the second with 
white tip; a white mark on outer primaries. Senegal to Gaboon and east to the Nile Valley. 
Probably there is a local or seasonal peculiarity in the distribution of this 
bird, for in all our field work by day we never started a single one nor in the 
many evenings spent watching for dusk-flying species did we ever see one, 
yet in the Sudan, with similar collecting work I became very familiar with the 
species. Nevertheless, it is probably common in Liberia at certain seasons, 
and doubtless more so near the coast. Biittikofer found it about Fisherman 
Lake and along the seashore at Grand Cape Mount, and speaks of it as a very 
frequent bird in brushwood as well as in coffee plantations at Schieffelinsville, 
while Stampfli secured two at Gallilee Falls on the lower Farmington River. 
No dates are given but it may well be that it occurs chiefly in the drier parts 
of the year which would account for our failure to find it. Perhaps, too, it is 
less common inland. On the southern coast of Liberia, Lowe (Bannerman, 
1912) regarded it as the more common of the two nightjars in early January, 
and found it at Nana Kru in the cassava plantations and along the edges of 
wooded swamps. In Sierra Leone, Thompson (1925) found it a bird of the 
coastal districts and states that in the interior the Pennant-winged Nightjar, 
Macrodipteryx longipennis seems to take its place. The latter no doubt will 
be found to occur sparingly at certain seasons in parts of Liberia, for it has 
been taken in Sierra Leone only a short distance from the Liberian border, 
but in open savannah country. 
MICROPODIFORMES 
MICROPODIDAE Swifts 
Apus apus apus Linné. Common Swift 
Hirundo apus Linné, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, vol. 1, p. 192, 1758: Europe. 
Length about 7 inches, blackish brown with slight greenish reflections, a black spot before the 
eye; chin white; immature birds with a larger white chin spot and a white band on the forehead. 
Breeds in Europe and North Africa, winters to South and West Africa. 
The only record of this species is that of Bittikofer (1890) who records 
an adult female shot at Robertport, November 7, in plumage not different 
from the European bird. This was probably a migrant newly arrived from the 
north. The paucity of records for swifts is no doubt due to the difficulty of 
shooting them or of distinguishing the different species on the wing. 
