CAPRIMULGIDH, GOATSUCKERS. 179 
the Upupide or hoopoes, the Coraciide or rollers, with their allies the Leptoso- 
matide, of Madagascar. 
III. PICI—comprising only three families, the Zyngidw, or wrynecks, with one 
genus and four species, of Europe, Asia and Africa; the Picwmnide, with one or 
two genera and nearly thirty species, chiefly American; and the Picide or true 
woodpeckers. The digits are permanently paired by reversion of the fourth, except 
in two tridactyle genera ; there is a modification of the lower end of the metatarsus, 
corresponding to the reverse position of the fourth toe, and the upper part of the 
same bone is perforated by canals for flexor tendons. The basal phalanges of the 
toes are short. The wing has ten primaries, with short coverts, contrary to the rule 
in this order; the tail ten rectrices, soft and rounded in Jyngide and Picumnide, 
rigid and acuminate in Picidce, where also a supplementary pair of spurious feathers 
is developed. The nostrils vary: they are large and of peculiar structure in Iyn- 
gide, usually covered with antrorse plumules in the rest. The bill is straight or 
nearly so, hard and strong, acute or truncate, the mandibles equal; the tongue is 
lumbriciform, and very generally extensile to a remarkable degree, by a singular 
elongation of the bones and muscles. The salivary glands have an unusual devel- 
opment, in the typical species at any rate. The sternum is doubly notched behind. 
A very strongly marked group; in some respects it approaches the Passerine birds 
more nearly than other Picaric do. 
Suborder CY PSELI. Cypseliform Birds. 
See p. 178, where some leading characters of the group are indicated. 
Family CAPRIMULGIDA. Goatsuckers, 
So called from a-traditional superstition. Fissirostral Picarie: head broad, 
flattened ; eyes and ears large; bill extremely small, depressed, triangular when 
viewed from above, with enormous gape reaching below the eye, and generally with 
bristles that frequently attain an extraordinary development; nostrils basal, 
exposed, roundish, with a raised border, sometimes prolonged into a tube. Wings 
more or less lengthened and pointed, of ten primaries and more than nine second- 
aries ; tail variable in shape, of ten rectrices. Feet extremely small; tarsus usually 
short, and partly feathered ; hind toe commonly elevated and turned sideways ; front 
toes connected at base by movable webbing, and frequently showing abnormal ratio 
of phalanges; middle toe lengthened beyond the short lateral ones, its claw fre- 
quently pectinate. A definitely circumscribed, easily recognized group of about 
fourteen genera and rather more than a hundred species, of temperate and tropical 
parts of both hemispheres. It is divisible, according to the structure of the feet, 
into two subfamilies, Podargine, chiefly Old World, with the normal ratio of 
phalanges, and Caprimulgine, as below. Considering, however, other points, 
particularly the shape of the sternum, a more elaborate division is into Podargine, 
phalanges normal, but tarsus naked and lengthened, and sternum doubly notched, 
with three genera of the Old World— Nyctibiine, phalanges normal, tarsus short, 
feathered, sternum doubly notched, upper mandible toothed, containing one genus 
of tropical America — Steatornithine, phalanges normal, sternum singly notched, 
with one genus of tropical America—and finally Caprimulgince, comprising the rest 
[Nore. An erroneous sequence of two genera haying been discovered since the key was printed, and there- 
fore too late to rectify the numbering, Gen. 112 and Gen. 113, will be found next after Gen. 125.) 
7 
