Volume 19, Plate V / Ornithology (Birds)

Pennant-Winged Night-Jar

Macrodipteryx Africanus

A remarkable African goat-sucker whose male bears one enormously long feather on each wing, inserted between the primary and secondary quills and reaching up to seventeen inches, of which six form the web; the female lacks these entirely. Mottled in rufous and black like its kindred, with grey black-barred middle tail-feathers and long wings, the body itself measures about eight inches, the ornaments seemingly decorative rather than useful.