_J. Gould and H. C. Richter, del^t_ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]
EUROSTOPODUS GUTTATUS.
Spotted Goat-sucker.
_Caprimulgus guttatus_, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p.
192.
_Käl-ga_, Aborigines of the lowland districts of Western Australia.
_Goatsucker_, of the Colonists.
As the similitude of its form would lead us to suspect, this species
closely resembles the preceding, both in its habits and in the whole of
its economy; unlike that species, however, whose range of habitat would
appear to be very limited, the present bird is universally, but thinly,
distributed over the whole of the southern portion of Australia. I
killed it in South Australia and in New South Wales; the collection
formed by Mr. Gilbert at Swan River also contained specimens which
presented no difference whatever, either in size or markings.
I more than once flushed this bird in open day, when, after mounting
rapidly in the air, it performed a few zigzag evolutions and pitched
again to the earth at a distant spot. That it breeds on the ground there
can be no doubt, as I found a newly-hatched young one on the precise
spot from which I had flushed the adult; the little helpless creature,
which much resembled a small mass of down or wool, was of a reddish
brown colour, not very dissimilar from the surface of the ground where
it had been hatched: my utmost endeavours to find the broken shell were
entirely unavailing; I am consequently unable to describe the egg, or to
furnish any further information respecting the nidification of this
singular form.
The sexes are so nearly alike in colour and size that they are not to be
distinguished except by dissection; the young, on the contrary, is
clothed in a more buffy brown dress until it has attained the size of
the adult.
Forehead and centre of the head brownish black, each feather spotted and
margined with bright buff; over each eye the feathers are pearly white
very finely pencilled with brownish black; lores and sides of the face
brown spotted with buff; collar at the back of the head reddish
chestnut; back grey freckled with black; scapularies light grey freckled
with brownish black, largely tipped with bright buff, with an irregular
diagonal patch of black; wing-coverts grey, spotted and freckled with
brown, each feather largely tipped with bright buff; primaries and
secondaries brownish black, marked on both webs with buff, the buff on
the outer webs being in the form of round spots, on the inner webs
irregular bars; on the inner web of the first primary is a large spot of
pure white, on the second primaries a similar but larger spot, and a
small one on the outer web; the third and fourth crossed by a large
irregular patch of white; middle tail-feathers light grey, marbled and
finely freckled with dark brown; lateral feathers light grey barred with
blackish brown and bright buff, and freckled with dark brown, the buff
on the outer web of the outside feather forming a regular row of spots;
on each side of the throat an oblique line of white; chest dark brown,
each feather broadly barred and spotted with light buff; abdomen bright
buff, finely and irregularly barred with black; under tail-coverts
sandy; bill black; irides very dark brown; feet mealy reddish brown.
The Plate represents an adult male and a young bird of the natural size.
[Illustration: