SWALLOWS. 



127 



The Nacunda Goat-suc;ker, one of tlie best examples of this genus, is a diurnal bird, 

 nice the Virginian Goat-sucker, and excepting on very bright days, may be seen abroad even 

 at noon, chasing the insects at a great elevation, and wheeling and diving after them with 

 the activity of the swallow. It also descends close to the ground, and pursues the gnats 

 and other aquatic flies as they rise from the surface of the water, or attempt to settle for 

 the purpose of depositing their eggs. It is a handsome bird, possessing a brilliantly 

 variegated plumage. On tbe upper parts of the body, the feathers are generally of a 



^'^i.^^ 



NACUNDA GOAT-SUCKER.-Poiingcr naaciila. 



greyish-brown variegated with large spots of black-brown, edged with rusty-red, and 

 mottled here and there with the same tint. The under parts of the body are nearly white, 

 the chin being tinted with cream-yellow, and covered with a few greyish bars, and the 

 breast white, striped with grey-brown horizontal lines. The tail is beautifully mottled 

 with yellow and brownish-black, and crossed by a number of black bars, sprinkled with 

 dots of brown. The Nacunda Goat-sucker is a native of Brazil and Paraguay. 



SWALLOWS. 



The close-set plumage of the Swallow Tbibe, their long sickle-like wings, their stiff, 

 firm tail, forked in most of the species, and their slight legs and toes, are characteristics 

 which mark them out as birds which spend the greater part of their existence in the air, 

 and exercise their wings far more than their feet. 



They all feed upon insects, and capture their prey in the air, ascending at one time to 

 such a height that they are hardly perceptible to the naked eye, and look merely like tiny 

 dots moving upon the sky, while at other seasons they skim the earth and play for hours 

 together over the surface of the water, in chase of the gnats that emerge in myriads from 

 the streams, during the time and season when they assume the perfect form. The gape of 

 the mouth is therefore exceedingly great in these birds, reaching as far as a point below 

 the eyes. The bill itself is very short, flattened, pointed, slightly curved downwards, and 

 broad at the base. 



