FAMILY CAPRIMULGID^E 



35. Family CAPRIMULGID^E 

 The Goatsuckers 



A large family of insectivorous birds of 

 wide distribution in warm and temperate 

 latitudes, whose members are mainly noc- 

 turnal in habits and have the soft, mottled 

 plumage of black, white and brown shades 

 characteristic of birds of the night. In cer- 

 tain structural characters, they show relation- 

 ship to the owls, but have small weak feet, 

 long wings and though the bill is very small 

 and short, the mouth is enormous when 

 opened, and serves to engulf their insect food 

 which they catch in their flight like swallows 

 and swifts. 



They usually lay their eggs (one or two in 

 number) on the ground without any nest. 

 Nearly all of them have loud and characteris- 

 tic calls. 



i. Nyctidromus albicollis albicollis (Gmelin) 

 Parauque 



Length, 251 mm. (9.90 in.); tail, 140 mm. 

 (5.50 in.). 



Male. Above brownish gray finely vermicu- 

 lated with dusky, and streaked with black on the 

 center of crown and back, the wing coverts with 

 large white and tawny spots and black markings ; 

 larger wing quills brown crossed by a broad 

 oblique white band; four middle tail feathers 

 brownish gray with splashes and indistinct bars 

 of dusky, the outer tail feathers mostly white; 

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