Jerdon’s Nightjar / Caprimulgus atripennis

Jerdon\'s Nightjar / Caprimulgus atripennis

Jerdon's Nightjar

SCI Name:  Caprimulgus atripennis
Protonym:  Caprimulgus atripennis Ill.Ind.Orn.[Jerdon] pl.24
Taxonomy:  Caprimulgiformes / Caprimulgidae /
Taxonomy Code:  jernig1
Type Locality:  Eastern Ghats to west of Nellore.
Author:  
Publish Year:  1845
IUCN Status:  

DEFINITIONS

CAPRIMULGUS
(Caprimulgidae; Ϯ European Nightjar C. europaeus) L. caprimulgus  nightjar  < capra  nanny-goat  < caper, capri  billy-goat; mulgere  to milk; “Those called goat-suckers  ...  enter the shepherds’ stalls and fly to the goats’ udders in order to suck their milk, which injures the udder and makes it perish, and the goats they have milked in this way gradually go blind” (Pliny X, lvi (ed. Rackham 1983)); this unfounded rustic superstition was for long associated with the European Nightjar; "NIGHT-HAWK (C. popetue). I have noticed, when skinning this bird, that the male, in spring, exhales a strong hircine odor.  If this is common to all birds of the family, it may have added apparent reason to the superstition from which the family name is derived." (Coues 1874); "102. CAPRIMULGUS.  Rostrum incurvum, minimum, subulatum, basi depressum.  Vibrissæ ad os serie ciliari.  Rictus amplissimus.   ...   Caprimulgus genere differt ab Hirundine, uti Strix a Falcone, Phalæna a Papilione." (Linnaeus 1758); "Caprimulgus Linné, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 1, 1758, p. 193. Type, by tautonymy, Caprimulgus europaeus Linné (Caprimulgus, pre-binomial specific name in synonymy." (Peters, 1940, IV, p. 196). Linnaeus's Caprimulgus, the final avian genus listed in his historic ground-breaking work, comprised two species (C. europæus, C. americanus). 
Synon. Allasma, Capripeda, Climacurus, Cosmetornis, Creapyga, Crotema, Diaphorasma, Eximiornis, Hypsiphornis, Macrodipteryx, Nyctichelidon, Nycticircus, Nyctitypus, Nyctipornis, Nyctisyrigmus, Nyctivociferator, Phalaenivora, Rossornis, Scotornis, Semeiophorus, Stelidopterus, Vociferator.

caprimulgus
L. caprimulgus  nightjar  < capra  nanny-goat  < caper, capri  billy-goat; mulgere  to milk (cf. Gr. αιγοθηλας aigothēlas  goatsucker).

atripennis
L. ater  black; -pennis  -winged  < penna  feather.

SUBSPECIES

Jerdon's Nightjar (atripennis)
SCI Name: Caprimulgus atripennis atripennis
atripennis
L. ater  black; -pennis  -winged  < penna  feather.

Jerdon's Nightjar (aequabilis)
SCI Name: Caprimulgus atripennis aequabilis
aequabilis
L. aequabilis  similar, like, equal  < aequare  to make equal  < aequus  equal.