160 THE GOATSUCKER. 
zoologists.—I have met with only one well-inarked 
species from the coast to the summitof the Rocky 
Mountains. They arrive at Vancouver Island 
and along the coast in May, and at Colville in 
June. On the 7th of June I observed a great 
number of these goatsuckers in company with 
what I imagined to be the Black Swift, but as they 
never came within range I could not determine 
the matter. I succeeded in getting one goat- 
sucker, a male; its stomach was gorged with 
winged ants; a flight of these insects had, as I 
imagine, attracted these birds. 
When flying high the goatsucker makes a 
curious kind of chirp—hence the name by which 
they are known throughout Oregon and Cali- 
fornia, as Pisk ; and when they swoop down, as 
they constantly do, from a great height, they 
make a loud booming noise, almost like a roar, 
or the twang of a large metal harp-string—whence 
I suppose comes the other name, Bull Bat. 
I have noticed them 7,000 feet above the sea- 
level, both on the Cascades and the Rocky Moun- 
tains. They lay two eggs in July, on the bare 
ground. They have a curious habit of pitching on 
the ground just asit is getting dark, and running 
along like a sandpiper, chasing moths and small 
insects. I have often seen them pitch close to 
my feet. 
