CAPRIMULGID.E: GOATSUCKERS. 561 



or Oil-bird, is so peculiar in many respects that it is sometimes set apart in a superfamily or 

 suborder Steatornithes (see p. 541 for characters); otherwise the transition from the Caprimul- 

 gidce on the one hand, through the Podargidce, to the Leptosomatidce, and thus to the Cora- 

 ciidce, on the other hand. A curious evidence of affinity between these families may be 

 witnessed in the lofty tumbling of our Night-hawks, comparable with those aerial evolutions 

 which have given the Kollers their name. A marked feature of Coracian birds is the presence 

 of pulviplumes in some of the families. The conformation of the palate is too various to fur- 

 nish decisive indications; it is of a type called iegithognathous or schizognathous in one of the 

 families, but desmognathous in the others. The syrinx is tracheo-bronchial, or pseudo-bron- 

 chial, or bronchial; in the latter case there are of course a pair of syringes, as in Steatornis ; 

 the syringeal muscles are not more than one pair. The oil-gland is nude, if present ; there 

 are cfeca. The sternum is deep-keeled, 2- or 4-notched. The spinal pteryla forks over the 

 shoulders. Two carotids occur (always '^). The ambiens is absent ; neither is there any ac- 

 cessory femorocaudal, and in Steatornis the femorocaudal itself is missing ; the flexor digitorum 

 profundus, and not the flexor hallucis, supplies the hallux, by the sympelmous arrangement of 

 tendons. The feet are anisodactylous, in the Kirumbos imperfectly zygodactylous by versatil- 

 ity of the 4th digit ; in the true Goatsuckers this digit lacks one phalanx ; there are also some 

 other peculiarities of the feet, which as a rule are very small, weak, and scarcely fitted for pro- 

 gression, or even for perching in an ordinary fashion. The rectrices are 10 or V2 ; primaries 

 1(1; secondaries more than 7. The suborder as a whole consists of nocturnal Picarian birds, 

 with more or less resemblance to Owls; the Oil-bird is quite owlish, and even so diurnal a fam- 

 ily as the Rollers contains nocturnal species. The suborder as a whole is nearly cosmopolitan ; 

 but four of its five families inhabit restricted areas, and only one is common to both hemispheres. 

 Tliis is the 



Family CAPRIMULGID^ : Goatsuckers. 



(So called from a traditional superstition.) Fissirostral Coracian I'icarite, Head broad, 

 flattened; neck inappreciable; eyes and ears large. Bill extremely small in its horny portion, 

 whicli is depressed, and triangular when viewed from above, but with enormous gape reaching 

 below the eye, and generally with bristles at- 

 taining an extraordinary development. Nos- 

 trils basal, exposed, roundish, with a raised 

 border, sometimes prolonged into a tube. 

 Wings more or less lengthened and jjointed, 

 df-riving tlieir sweep mainly from elongation 

 of the distal joints and the feathers, tlie prox- 

 imal segment being short; of 10 primaries 

 and more than 7 secondaries; the latter not 



so extremely short as in Clipselidcc AwA Tro- Fio. 378. -Whippoorwill, a aetirostral Caprimulgine. 



,.,., rp ., -,, • , em (From Tenney, after Wilson.) 



chiluhe. lail variable in shape, or 10 rec- 

 trices. Plumage aftershafted ; pulviplumes jirosent only in one genus (Xi/ctibius). Feet 

 extremely small; tarsus usually short, and partly feathered; hind toe very short, commonly 

 elevated and turned sideways ; front toes connected at base by movable webbing, and usu- 

 ally showing abnormal ratio of phalanges, the 4th toe having but 4 joints (p. 133, fig. 41) ; 

 middle toe lengthened beyond the sliort lateral ones, its claw usually pectinate (fig. iiSO). 

 Tlie small oil-gland is nude, and ca-ca are present. The arrangement of the palatal bones 

 is not desmognathous; small basipterygoids are present; tlie jtalatines are cxpandetl later- 

 ally; the vomer is truncate in front. The sternum is 2-notclied (4-notch<'d only in Xifcti- 

 bius). As thus defined (to the exdnsioii of I'odnrffiihr ami Stfalornithi<l(r, which used lu 



