CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE 



THE GOATSUCKERS 



GOATSUCKER is a curious name for birds that feed 

 entirely on insects. Their beaks are small but their 

 mouths open very wide, and 

 some kinds, like the whippoor- 

 will, have long, stiffened bristles 

 bordering the mouth opening, 

 making a sort of insect net. 

 There are many kinds of goat- 

 suckers in the tropics of both 



i "- . . . . . FIG. 219. Head of whippoor- 



hemispheres, but in the United wiu . when the mouth is 

 States the family is represented opened, the stiff bristles border- 



. , , ., . , ,, , , ing it form a net for catching 



mainly by the nighthawks and insects . 

 whippoorwills. They are in- 

 teresting birds, but unfortunately are no longer common, 

 although the nighthawks have in some places increased 

 in numbers during the last few years. They should be 

 protected, for they do much good and no harm. 



The nighthawk. The nighthawk spends the winter 

 in South America and arrives rather late in the spring 

 at its summer home in the United States and Canada. 

 They are not hawks, as you would naturally think from 

 their name. Their feet are small and not at all adapted 

 to seizing prey, nor are their beaks adapted to tearing 

 flesh. They feed entirely on insects which they catch 

 as they fly, and so are useful to man. Fifty different 

 kinds of insects have been found in the stomach of a 

 single nighthawk. Their bill of fare includes malaria- 

 carrying mosquitoes, flies, moths, cotton-boll weevils, 

 potato beetles, squash bugs, June bugs, and various 



357 



