Ind. Orn. iii. p. 588; Jerd., B. bid. i. p. 197, No. 112; Hume, Nests and Eggs p. 97; id., Str. F. iii. p. 46; Blyth, B. Br. Burm. p. 46; Hume and Dav., Str. F. v. p. 59; Legge, B. Ceylon, p. 343; Brooks, Str. F. vii. p. 169; Hume, Str. F. viii. p. 85 ; Murray, Hdbk., Zool., Sec., Sind, p. 126 ; id-., Vert. Zool. Sind; p. 106; Bingham, Str. F. ix. p. 150; Oates, B. Br. Burm. ii. p. 17. -
The Common Indian Night-Jar.
Plumage remarkably soft and lax, pale rufescent ashy; the feathers finely pencilled and mottled with dusky ; top of head with narrow longitudinal-blackish streaks; neck with a white spot; collar rufescent; wing coverts and scapulars edged with buffy or tawny ; quills with a white spot on each of the first four feathers, and mottled at the tip, the exterior feathers with a large white patch near the tips of the inner webs ; a central patch of white on the throat. Lower parts and tail irregularly barred and mottled lightly ; the tail, in the male, with white spots on the outer tail feathers; tarsi bare..
Length. - 9 inches; extent 18 to 18.5-; wing 5.5 to 6; tail 4.5,
Hab. - Very widely spread in India and Ceylon. Occurs in: Sind; the Concan and Deccan, Kutch, Kattiawar, and North Guzerat; recorded also from Upper Pegu and Amherst. Breeds wherever it is found, ascending the lower ranges of the Himalayas to the height of 5,000 or 6,000 feet in spring and summer. May is the month in which they breed, but eggs have' also been taken in April. Eggs, two in number, long, cylindrical ovals, of a pinkish stone colour, blotched, clouded, spotted and streaked with different shades of pale reddish and purplish brown. Average size 1.04 X 0.77. The eggs are laid in a depression on the ground.
