Square-tailed Nightjar

SCI Name:  Caprimulgus fossii
Protonym:  Caprimulgus Fossii Syst.Orn.Westafr. p.23
Taxonomy:  Caprimulgiformes / Caprimulgidae / Caprimulgus
Taxonomy Code:  sqtnig1
Type Locality:  Gaboon.
Author:  Hartlaub
Publish Year:  1857
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

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).

fossii
W. Fosse (fl. 1856) French collector in tropical Africa (Caprimulgus).

SUBSPECIES

Square-tailed Nightjar (fossii)
SCI Name: Caprimulgus fossii fossii
fossii
W. Fosse (fl. 1856) French collector in tropical Africa (Caprimulgus).

Square-tailed Nightjar (welwitschii)
SCI Name: Caprimulgus fossii welwitschii
welwitschii
Dr Friedrich Martin Josef Welwitsch (1806-1872) Austrian botanist, collector, explorer in Angola 1853-1861 (subsp. Caprimulgus fossii).

Square-tailed Nightjar (griseoplurus)
SCI Name: Caprimulgus fossii griseoplurus
griseoplurus
Med. L. griseum  grey; Gr. πλευρα pleura  side, rib.