Another Look at Megaegotheles, a Large Owlet-Nightjar from New Zealand

Abstract

RICH, P. V. and R. J. SCARLETT. 1976. Another look at Megaegotheles, a large owlet-nightjar from New Zealand. Emu 77: 1–8. Megaegotheles, a Pleistocene to sub-Recent relative of the Australasian owlet-nightjars Aegotheles, is re-examined and found to exhibit increase in body-size with increasing latitude. Although the wings of this form are not markedly larger than those of Aegotheles, the hind limb is markedly larger, thus suggesting that Megaegotheles may have been flightless or nearly so, the first-known occurrence of this phenomenon in the Caprimulgiformes.