330 



NYCTICHELIDON. 



description of their more general characters, and their 

 place hi nature ; and hence it becomes necessary to 

 make use of some distinct name at the head of this 

 general description. That which we have taken is 

 not wholly unobjectionable ; but as we intend not to 

 apply it either to the genera or the species, but to 

 leave them under their old names, it may be used 

 without any danger of misleading, and we have no 

 desire to load the vocabulary with any new name, 

 though it is still necessary to make a few general 

 remarks on so curious a group of birds. 



The genera which compose the group are Capri- 

 mulgus, or the goat-sucker properly so called, and 

 Podargus, which has escaped the infliction of any 

 peculiarly inappropriate name, but of which the scien- 

 tific term which we have given, by a slight alteration 

 of the last part, indicates that the feet are more 

 clear, or fit for walking, than those of the former genus. 



This being understood, we may mention that the 

 swallows which feed by daylight, of which an account 

 will be found in the article HIRUNDO, together with 

 the present group, make up a family, which are so 

 distinct in their habits that they ought perhaps to 

 stand as a distinct order, under some such a name as 

 Chelonidce, and they are so arranged by some ornitho- 

 logists. They take up the natural system where the 

 birds of prey leave it off, far more naturally than it is 

 taken up by those birds which are usually ranged 

 nearest the birds of prey in the systems. Like them, 

 too, they admit of division into two sections diurnal 

 feeders, or the swallows, and nocturnal feeders, or 

 the group now under consideration, and the present 

 group stand in almost precisely the same relation to 

 the owls as the swallows do to the hawks and other 

 diurnal birds of prey. The more powerful predatory 

 birds, both diurnal and nocturnal, subsist chiefly on 

 warm-blooded animals ; but the last and feeblest spe- 

 cies of both subsist, in part at least, upon insects ; and 

 the two sections of the Chelonidce take up the insec- 

 tivorous feeding where the others leave it off, the 

 day ones feeding almost exclusively on the wing, but 

 the night ones, as is understood, in part at least upon 

 the ground, where they nestle among the herbage, 

 and do not resort to elevated nesting places like the 

 swallows. The difference between the day preyers 

 and the night ones, and the agreement of each in the 

 two orders, extend even to the plumage, and to the 

 apparent strength and powers of endurance of the 

 birds. The feathering of the swallows is firm and 

 compact, like the feathering of hawks, while the birds 

 of the present section have light bodies in proportion 

 to their apparent size, and soft loose plumage like the 

 owls. The lengths of their flights also correspond ; 

 for, while the best-winged hawks do not surpass the 

 high feeding swallows in rapidity or continuance of 

 flight, the flight of the present section, so far as is 

 known, is short, like that of the owls. There is 

 therefore a distinct office in nature for all the chelo- 

 nian birds, and there is a distinct time and manner 

 for the labours of each division of them. They have 

 not been sufficiently studied for enabling us to bring 

 the details into a very systematic form, as interwoven 

 with this general notice ; and so must take the rest 

 that we have to say in the order of the two genera. 



CAPRJMULGUS. The most striking characters of 

 this genus are : a plumage of light texture, mottled 

 and clouded with grey and brown, as is the case with 

 most nocturnal birds. Their eyes are large, their bills 

 are more deeply cleft than those of the swallows, 



and they are furnished at the margins with stiff mous- 

 taches, while the birds can retain in the mouth, by 

 means of their glutinous saliva, the largest insects 

 which are on the wing at the time of i heir feeding. 

 Their nostrils are at the base of the bill, drawn out 

 in the form of little tubes. Their wings are very 

 long, but their feet are short, have the tarsi feathered, 

 the toes joined by short membranes at the bases ; 

 and the hind toe partially united to the inner front 

 one, and inclined a little forwards. The claw on the 

 middle toe is often teethed like a sort of comb on its 

 inner edge, and the outer front toe has only four 

 phalanges. 



They are birds, generally speaking, of retiring 

 habits, rarely appearing during the day, and never in 

 flocks. Their feeding time is in the twilight of still 

 evenings, and their food is chiefly those moths, beetles, 

 and other insects which are then on the wing. It is 

 probable, however, that in still gloomy weather, they 

 beat the bushes near the ground during the day ; and 

 also that those which frequent the deep and twilight 

 forests of tropical countries, find sufficient twilight in 

 the shade of these for enabling them to seek their food, 

 while most living creatures are driven to repose by 

 the heat of a vertical sun, which, as it throws the 

 shadow of the forest upon the ground immediately 

 under it, makes the under sides of all the leaves and 

 branches dark. 



Those with which we are sufficiently acquainted 

 to judge of their habits are not nocturnal but twilight ; 

 and, indeed, the number of birds that are actually 

 nocturnal is, in all probability, very few. Their long 

 wings enable those birds to fly very lightly, so that 

 being incessantly on the wing during their short 

 feeding time does not greatly fatigue them. So far 

 as is known too, they do not give themselves much 

 trouble in preparing accommodation for their young, 

 for their nests hardly deserve the name. The young 

 also are few in a hatch ; and thus the finding of food 

 for them is the less laborious. Still it is probable 

 that the few which they have require more food in 

 proportion to their numbers than the young of day 

 birds, upon the well-known principle that the pro- 

 duction of feathers is more expensive in this way than 

 the production of bones and flesh. We do not know 

 directly the quantity of food which any of the capri- 

 mulgi may carry to their young ; but as the analogy 

 between them and the owls is very palpable in many 

 other respects, we may naturally conclude that it 

 must hold in the feeding also ; and we do know, from 

 direct observation, that young owls consume an 

 immense quantity of food, far more than any one 

 would imagine, judging only from the trifling volume 

 of their bodies. 



Altogether the caprimulgi are most singular crea- 

 tures ; and though there is but one of them which 

 can be observed in a state of nature in Britain, and 

 that one is somewhat local, and no where very nu- 

 merous, yet their history is far from being the least 

 inviting portion of ornithology. We shall now notice 

 the leading species ; but with the exception of the 

 one which is native in Britain, we shall be able to 

 give little else than a mere catalogue. 



EUROPEAN GOATSUCKER (C. Europceus}. Being 

 the only species, not of this genus merely, but of the 

 whole family of night birds which prey upon insects 

 on the wing, and being besides a remarkable bird 

 both in its appearance and its manners, this bird has 

 always excited a good deal of interest both among 



