1057 



GOAT-SUCKERS. 



GOAT-SUCKERS. 



1038 



of the Welsh; and Goat -Sucker, Night -Jar, Jar -Owl, Churn- 

 Owl, Fern-Owl, Dor-Hawk, Night-Hawk, and Wheel-Bird, of the 

 English. 



Common (joat-Suckcr (Uuprimulgui Europavi). 



The absurd story of the goat-sucking habits of this bird may be 

 traced back as far as the time of Aristotle, and is probably of much 

 older date. It has all the appearance of a deep-rooted popular preju- 

 dice, which was so extensively believed when that zoologist wrote, as 

 to demand, in his opinion, insertion in his ' History of Animals." In 

 the ninth book of that history (c. xxx.), Aristotle says, " The bird 

 called Jlrjothelat is a mountain-bird, a little larger than the blackbird 

 (KOTTI*)>OU), and a little less than the cuckoo. It lays eggs to the 

 number of two or three at most, and is of a slothful nature (/SAoitiico's). 

 Flying upon the goats, it sucks them (OrjAofei Se rav atyas Kfotr**- 

 whence it has its name. They say that when it has 



sucked. He Bay s that the operation makes the teat dry or blind ( 

 paoeiv), and BO the flow of the milk is stopped. He speaks of the 

 great audacity of the bird, observing that it is fearless of the vengeance 





n*d and foot of Common Goat-Sucker (Capr'unvlgut Zuroptmi). 



of the goatherds (iii. 39). .(Elian also refers to its goat-sucking pro- 

 pensity in c. 22 of book xvi. Pliny (' Nat, Hist.,' ix. 40) states that 

 the " Caprimulgi are nocturnal thieves: for they cannot see by day 

 (interdiu enim visu carent). They enter the folds (stabula), and fly 

 to the udders of the goats in order to suck the milk, from which 

 injury the udder dies away, and blindness falls upon the goats which 

 HAT. HIST. D1V. VOL. II. 



liave been so sucked." Nor is the charge of goat-sucking the only 

 False accusation made against the Night-Jar. White (' Selborne') 

 informs us that the country-people have a notion that the fern-owl, 

 or churn-owl, or eve-jarr, which they also call a puckeridge. is very 

 Injurious to weanling calves, by inflating, as it strikes at them, the 

 fatal distemper known to cow-leeches by the name of puckeridge. 

 11 Thus," says White, " does this harmless ill-fated bird fall under a 

 double imputation, which it by no means deserves ; in Italy, of 

 sucking the teats of goats, whence it is called the Caprimulrfus, and 

 with us, of communicating a deadly disorder to the cattle. But the 

 truth of the matter is, the malady is occasioned by the CKstria boms, a 

 dipterous insect, which lays its eggs along the chines of kine, where 

 the maggots, when hatched, eat their way through the hide of the 

 beast into the flesh, and grow to a very large size." (White, ' Sol- 

 borne.') Belon, in his folio edition (1555), gives no figure of this 

 species, but appears to confound it with an Owl, 'L'Effraye' or 

 'Fresaye.' In the small 4to. 'Portraits d'Oyseaux,' &c. (1557), a 

 figure is given at the end of the owls, which, though bad, cannot 

 be mistaken for anything but the Goat-Sucker, with the titles of 

 ' Ai7o07)\as, Slrix Caprimulgus, Fur noclnrnus, Effraye, Frezaye," with 

 the following old quatrain : 



" Le hidcux cry de la Freznye effiayc 



Ccluy qui 1'oit : die vole dc nuict, 



Et a tetter les chcvres prend deduict. 



T'esbahis-tu s'clle se nom Effraye ? " 



The food of the European Goat-Sucker consists chiefly of night- 

 flying and evening-flying moths and beetles, Phaliena, Melolmithcc, &c. 

 In the stomach of one which Willughby opened were seeds as well 

 as beetles. The Fern-Chafer, Melolontha solstitialis, seems to be a 

 favourite food, and hence the bird is frequently found in those neigh- 

 bourhoods where fern abounds. It spends the summer in the tem- 

 perate countries of Europe, but on the approach of winter retires to 

 the south of the Mediterranean Sea. Its arrival in these islands may 

 be looked for from the middle of May to the end of that month, and 

 its departure takes place towards the end of September or beginning 

 of October. The earliest appearance of the bird in White's ' Calendar' 

 is dated on the 1st of May, and the latest on the 2Cth of that month. 

 The last-named naturalist paid particular attention to the habits of 

 this species. "There is no bird, I believe," writes that delightful 

 observer, in a letter to Pennant, " whose manners I have studied more 

 than that of the Caprimulyus (the Goat-Sucker), as it is a wonderful 

 and curious creature ; but I have always found that though some- 

 times it may chatter as it flies, as I know it does, yet in general it 

 utters its jarring note sitting on a bough ; and I have for many an 

 half-hour watched it as it Bat with its under mandible quivering, and 

 particularly this summer. It perches usually on a bare twig, with 

 its head lower than its tail, in an attitude well expressed by your 

 draughtsman in the folio ' British Zoology.' This bird is most punctual 

 in beginning its song exactly at the close of day ; so exactly that I 

 have known it strike up more than once or twice just at the report of 

 the Portsmouth evening gun, which we can hear when the weather is 

 still. It appears to me past all doubt that its notes are formed by 

 organic impulse, by the powers of the parts of its windpipe, formed 

 for sound, just as cats pur. You will credit me, I hope, when I 

 assure you that, as my neighbours were assembled in an hermitage 

 on the side of a steep hill, where we drink tea, one of these churn- 

 owls came and settled on the cross of that little straw edifice and 

 began to chatter, and continued his note for many minutes ; and we 

 were all struck with wonder to find that the organs of that little 

 animal when put in motion gave a sensible vibration to the whola 

 building ! This bird also sometimes makes a small squeak, repeated 

 four or five times ; and I have observed that to happen when the 

 cock has been pursuing the hen in a toying way through the boughs 

 of a tree." Again : " On the 12th of July I had a fair opportunity 

 of contemplating the motions of the Caprimulyut, or Fern-Owl, as it 

 was playing round a large oak that swarmed with Scaralmi sohtitiales, 

 or Fern-Chafers. The powers of its wing were wonderful, exceeding, 

 if possible, the various evolutions and quick turns of the swallow 

 genus. But the circumstance that pleased me most was, that I saw 

 it distinctly, more than once, put out its short leg, while on the wing, 

 and by a bend of the head deliver somewhat into its mouth. If it 

 takes any part of its prey with its foot, as I have now great reason to 

 suppose it does these chafers, I no longer wonder at the use^of its 

 middle toe, which is curiously furnished with a serrated claw." Mr. 

 Vigors (loc. cit.) remarks that the Common Barn-O.wl (Strix flammea) 

 possesses the same character of serrated unguis : and that some other 

 species of the Strigidce exhibit somewhat of the rudiments of it ; thus 

 establishing more closely the affinity of the Owls and the Capri- 

 mulgi Mr. Vigors adds that his conjecture as to the use of the 

 serrated claw that is, its being devoted to the purposes of seizure- 

 is considerably corroborated by the passage from White above quoted. 

 At the same time he refers to Wilson, who in his account of the 

 Cavrimnlgus Carolinensis (Antrostomus Carolinensis of Prince C. L. 

 Bonaparte) assigns a different use to this serrated claw. Of this 

 species Wilson says, "Reposing much during the heat of the day, 

 they are much infested with vermin, particularly about the head, and 

 are provided with a comb on the inner edge of the middle claw, with 

 which they are often employed in ridding themselves of these pests, 



3 T 



