EUROPEAN GOATSUCKER, G37 



with open mouth, for the purpose of seizing its prey, is not 

 much less preposterous. It has been alleged that Swifts and 

 Swallows do so, but I have satisfactorily ascertained that they 

 do not ; and there is no reason to suppose that Goatsuckers are 

 so awkward as to require to keep their jaws constantly wide 

 open, lest their prey should escape them. The pharynx in 

 them has no particular apparatus for closing it, and were a bird 

 having so wide a mouth to rush forward, as it does, with great 

 velocity, its gullet and stomach would be filled with air. Some 

 remarks on the serrature of the claw may be deferred, for it is 

 time that the bird itself should now be introduced. 



It is evening ; the ruddy streaks of the western sky have 

 faded into a dull purple ; the moon already in the heavens 

 sends abroad her pale light ; there is silence in the woods, and 

 the hum of men reaches not to this lone place, where tufts of 

 stunted furze cover a plain bounded on one side by tall pines. 

 How soothing to the lacerated feelings, healthful to the care- 

 worn frame, cheering to the soul sick of sin and weary of the 

 world, the placid quiet, the balmy air, and the faint light of 

 this secluded place. Hark ! It is the wlilrv of the Fern Owl. 

 Again ! nearer, more distant, faint. It has ceased ; but there, 

 the creature itself sweeps over head, glides along, flutters, shoots 

 aside, and is off. Many times it may pass you as you linger 

 to inhale the balmy breeze, and you may observe that its mode 

 of flying is not unlike that of the Swallow, like wdiich it pur- 

 sues its insect prey on wing, feeding on moths and beetles. But 

 one can seldom trace its habits in continuance, and therefore we 

 may at once bring together the results of our observation. 



The Goatsucker arrives in England from the middle to the 

 end of May, being among the latest of our summer visitants, 

 and departs about the end of September. It is extensively dis- 

 tributed, but nowhere very common, and in many large tracts 

 is not met with. Dr Edward Moore states that it is common 

 about the South Downs of Devonshire, where it frequents or- 

 chards. In the other southern counties it is common, and al- 

 though it may not have been carefully traced over all the inter- 

 vening space, until we come to the Scottish border, it has been 

 found so frequently that particular localities need not be pointed 



