OF EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA. 87 



The tongue is worm-shaped and quite extensile to a great 

 degree, bv a peculiar lengthening of the bones and muscles. 

 In the typical species, the salivary glands attain an unusual 

 development. The breastbone is doublv notched. 



Suborder CypSOli. Cvpscliform Birds. 

 Family CaprimulgidSB. Goatsuckers. 



This group, so called from a traditional superstition, repre- 

 sents fissirostral Picarice. The head is broad and com- 

 pressed ; eyes and ears large : bill very small, depressed, 

 triangular when viewed superiorly, and remarkable for its 

 enormous gape, which reaches below the visual organs. It 

 is generally armed with bristles of extraordinary develop- 

 ment. Nostrils basal, exposed, roundish, with an elevated 

 margin ; sometimes tube-like. Wings, elongated and pointed 

 to a greater or less degree, and composed of ten primaries, 

 and more than nine secondaries ; tail variable in form, and 

 constituted of ten rectrices. Feet very small, tarsus ordina- 

 rily short and feathered ; posterior toe, elevated and turned 

 sideways, commonly ; anterior toes, conjoined by a basal 

 movable web, and exhibiting abnormal proportion of phalan- 

 ges ; middle toes, reaching beyond the lateral toes, and arm- 

 ed with a claw which is pectinate. This group embraces 

 about fourteen genera and more than a hundred species, 

 which are to be found in the temperate and tropical regions 

 of both hemispheres. It is divisible into two subfamilies ; 

 Podargina, mainly of the Old World, with the phalanges of 

 normal proportion ; and the Caprimulgince or goatsuckers. 

 Dr. Cones basing his classification upon the shape of the 

 sternum, considers a division into Podargina, NyctibiiiiiC, 

 Steatornithince , and Caprimulgina, a more elaborate divi- 

 sion. The last mentioned alone, particularly concerns us in 

 the present work. 



Subfamily CaprimulginSB. Trite Goatsuckers. 



The sternum is singly notched on each side, posteriorly. 



