. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. Birds. 141 [(4)} et al. in press), I came to the conclusion that the grey forms of C. natalensis are better considered as colour-morphs rather than as distinct subspecies. Of these forms, White (1965) remarked "Geographical variation is not fully understood, very similar reddish populations having a wide, broken range, with greyer populations intervening". C. natalensis is a small, distinctively marked, short-tailed nightjar with robust legs and feet, inhabiting short, moist grasslands from Liberia to Kenya and t
. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. Birds. 141 [(4)} et al. in press), I came to the conclusion that the grey forms of C. natalensis are better considered as colour-morphs rather than as distinct subspecies. Of these forms, White (1965) remarked "Geographical variation is not fully understood, very similar reddish populations having a wide, broken range, with greyer populations intervening". C. natalensis is a small, distinctively marked, short-tailed nightjar with robust legs and feet, inhabiting short, moist grasslands from Liberia to Kenya and thence south to Natal. The colour-pattern consists of large black or brown spots on a rufous-buff or greyish ground. It is variously known as the White-tailed or Natal Nightjar, neither name being particularly appro- priate. White in the tail is limited to the 2 outer pairs of rectrices and the undertail coverts, while the Natal population is an isolated one, whose habitat has, in any case, been very largely destroyed by sugar cane culture. Cyrus & Robson's recent "Bird Atlas of Natal" (1980) shows it surviving only in Zululand and the extreme south of Natal; however, it almost certainly extends to southern Mozambique—probably even further up the Mozam- bique coast. I suggest a more appropriate name is "Swamp Nightjar", referring to its chosen habitat. 20°W. 50°E 20°S' ^ i \ 10°W 10°E ^ h _-K)'N « 20°E 30°E 40«E 10*S --20°S - -30°S 50°E Fig. 1. Sketch map showing distribution of Caprimulgus natalensis and the areas inhabited by populations A to N (see text and Table 1). Circles represent isolated localities. Blacked in circles indicate the type-localities of 7 described subspecies, question marks possible but unproved occurrence. Adapted with permission from The Birds of Africa. Vol. 3 (Urban et al. in press). The range of the species as a whole is much broken up, and it is perhaps not surprising that 7 subspecies should have been describ
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