Inhabits the northern or intertropical parts of Australia, where it represents the Æ. Novæ-Hollandiæ.

Genus Podargus, Cuv.

With no one group of the Australian birds have I had so much difficulty in discriminating the species as the genus Podargus. It is almost impossible to determine with certainty the older species described by Latham; could this have been done satisfactorily, even in a single instance, it would have greatly facilitated the investigation of the remainder. Messrs. Vigors and Horsfield regarded the specimens in the Linnean Collection as referable to three species, and have described them under the names of Stanleyanus, humeralis, and Cuvieri; Latham’s description of the species named by him megacephalus accords so well with the P. Stanleyanus, that I suspect both those terms have been applied to one and the same species, an opinion strengthened by Latham’s remarks as to the great size of the head and mandibles of his bird, the total length of which he states to be thirty inches, which is evidently an error.

After examining a large number of specimens comprising individuals of all ages, I have come to the conclusion that the Australian members of this genus constitute six species; four of which, namely, P. megacephalus, P. humeralis, P. Cuvieri, and P. brachypterus, are most closely allied to each other; and two, namely, P. plumiferus and P. Phalænoides, which present specific characters that cannot be mistaken. We have then in Australia a large group of nocturnal birds of this form destined, as it would seem, to keep in check the great families of Cicadæ and Phasmidæ, upon which they mainly subsist; but they do not refuse other insects, and even berries have been found in their stomachs. They are an inanimate and sluggish group of birds, and do not procure their food on the wing so much as other Caprimulgi, but obtain it by traversing the branches of the various trees upon which their favourite insects reside; at intervals during the night they sit about in open places, on rails, stumps of trees, on the roofs of houses and on the tombstones in the churchyards, and by superstitious persons are regarded as omens of death, their hoarse disagreeable voice adding not a little to the terrors induced by their presence.

In their nidification the Podargi differ in a most remarkable manner from all the other Caprimulgidæ, inasmuch as while the eggs of the Ægothelæ are deposited in the holes of trees, and those of the members of the other genera of this family on the ground, these birds construct a flat nest of small sticks on the horizontal branches of trees for the reception of theirs, which are moreover of the purest white.

Although I have no satisfactory evidence that these birds resort to a kind of hybernation for short periods during some portions of the year, I must not omit to mention that I have been assured that they do occasionally retire to and remain secluded in the hollow parts of the trees; and if such should prove to be the case, it may account for the extreme obesity of many of the individuals I procured, which was often so great as to prevent me from preserving their skins. I trust that these remarks will cause the subject to be investigated by those who are favourably situated for so doing; for my own part I see no reason why a bird should not pass a portion of its existence in a state of hybernation as well as some species of quadrupeds, animals much higher in the scale of creation.

So great a similarity in plumage reigns throughout the first four of the species enumerated below that I have thought it unnecessary to figure more than two, viz. P. humeralis and P. Cuvieri; the other two may be readily distinguished by the descriptions I have given of them, particularly if the localities be attended to.

40. Podargus megacephalus.

In the general colouring, form and arrangement of its markings, this species so closely resembles the P. humeralis, that one description applies equally to both; but it may be distinguished by its being somewhat larger in the body and much larger in the head, and by the very great development of the mandibles.