. Cassell's book of birds . y small and delicate, and the bristles at its base comparatively long; theinner toes are longer than those on the exterior. The plumage is somewhat difficult to describe; inScotornis dimacurus the body is principally of a pale reddish brown, with dark markings; the chin,cheek-stripes, and extremities of the smaller wing-covers are white, the quills black, spotted with greyon the lower half; the first six are striped with white in the middle; the rest are spotted with redand black, and tipped with white. The centre tail-feathers are marked with undulating lines ofdif
. Cassell's book of birds . y small and delicate, and the bristles at its base comparatively long; theinner toes are longer than those on the exterior. The plumage is somewhat difficult to describe; inScotornis dimacurus the body is principally of a pale reddish brown, with dark markings; the chin,cheek-stripes, and extremities of the smaller wing-covers are white, the quills black, spotted with greyon the lower half; the first six are striped with white in the middle; the rest are spotted with redand black, and tipped with white. The centre tail-feathers are marked with undulating lines ofdifferent shades ; those at the exterior are white upon the outer web, and the two next in orderterminate in a white spot; the lower side is a mixture of brown and grey, arranged in wave-likecurves. The male is about fifteen inches long and twenty broad; the wing measures five inches anda half and the tail full nine and a half. The body of the female is considerably shorter than that ofvol. 11.—56 no CASSELLS BOOK OF THE LYRE-TAILED NIGHT JAR {ffydrapsalis forcipata). her mate. All the sparely - covered,sandy plains of Central Africa afforda home to the members of this to our own observationsthey are rarely found beyond sixteendegrees north latitude ; other autho-rities affirm that they occasionallywander as far as Europe, and havebeen met with in Provence, but weare inclined to question the accuracyof this statement. The LYRE-TAILED NIGHTJARS (Hydropsalis), a group of veryremarkable birds inhabiting SouthAmerica, are recognisable by theirlong powerful wings, in which the firstquill is much bent; their slender, butcomparatively strong beak; their deli-cate feet, partially covered with fea-thers, and protected with horny platesupon its lower half; and their remark-ably forked tail, which in the malebird is occasionally of great length. THE LYRE-TAILED NIGHT Lyre - tailed Night Jar(Hydropsalis forcipata), as the specieswith which we are most famili
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