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N Y C T I C H E L I D O N. 



jectures of Gilbert White, upon such subjects of 

 natural history a? came under his own observation, 

 always point to the direction of the truth, unless 

 where deference to the allegations of earlier naturalists 

 cross him, and then he suffers himself to be led astray. 

 His opinion, as will be seen, rather leans to the sup- 

 position that the prey is actually taken with the foot, 

 and conveyed to the mouth by that instrument. " On 

 the twelfth of July," says White, " I had a fair op- 

 portunity of contemplating 1 the motions of the Ca- 

 primulgus, or fern-owl, as it was playing round a lartre 

 oak that swarmed with Scarab&i, 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 when on the wing, and, by 

 a bend of the head, deliver somewhat into its mouth. 

 If it takes any part of its food with its foot, as I have 

 now the greatest 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." 

 As to the fact of the bird repeatedly bringing the 

 foot to the mouth while hawking about for its prey, 

 there can be no doubt, for White is never wrong in a 

 matter of fact of his own observation ; but we have 

 already shown that the structure of the foot is against 

 this opinion in the part which he could not observe, 

 namely, in the particular office which the foot per- 

 formed. Thus we must still regard the use of the 

 pectinated claw as a subject open to future inquiries. 

 The mouth of the goat-sucker, including the bill, 

 is very curious. Its gape is wider than that of any 

 other bird of these islands. The hard parts of the 

 mandibles occupy only a small portion of the gape ; 

 the vibrissce, which are along the remaining part of 

 it, have small muscles attached to their bulbous 

 roots, by the action of which they can be extended 

 outwards, or contracted inwards. Altogether the 

 bill is weak, and, like the bills of the day-swallows, 

 incapable of acting as an offensive weapon against 

 any other bird, however small. The nostrils are 

 contained in tubes, bearing some slight resemblance 

 to those of some of the sea-birds ; but what purpose 

 this particular structure of nostril answers in the 

 bird, it is not very easy to say. It is possible that 

 they contribute to a keener sense of smell, which 

 seems to be necessary, because, from the particular 

 manner in which the head is carried when the bird 

 is flying in quest of its prey, it cannot, notwithstand- 

 ing the largeness of its eyes, see before it. It has 

 indeed been alleged that it turns its eyes so as to 

 look through the integuments of the mouth when 

 flying ; but this is too ridiculous to require any 

 serious refutation. Its hearing is no doubt keen, and 

 may serve it in great stead on its nightly excursions. 

 The beetles on which it preys are all noisy in their 

 flight, because the weight of the body, and of the 

 wing-covers or elytra together, require an exceed- 

 ingly rapid motion of the wings, in order to prevent 

 these animals from falling by their own weight. 

 The large beetles especially, upon which the goat- 

 sucker feeds so much, have great difficulty in taking 

 the wing ; and when a tree is thick with chafers, if 

 one shake it, they tumble down like a hail-shower, 

 without being able to get into flight ; whereas, if the 

 same were done with naked-winged insects, not one 

 of them vi-ould drop. Both beetles and moths have 

 a peculiar scent, and this scent is of course stronger 



at night, or in the shadow, than it is in the heat of 

 the sun, because the latter disperses it through the 

 air. The scent may therefore enable this bird to 

 direct the points of its mandibles correctly upon its 

 prey, after the presence of that prey has been made 

 known to it by the ear. But, from the largeness of 

 its e3 r es, it must also use these to a very considerable 

 extent in making its captures ; and as the flight of 

 its prey, whether beetles or moths, is not nearly so 

 rapid as that of the prey of the day-swallows, and it 

 is very dexterous in turning on the wing, there is no ' 

 doubt that it can wheel round upon the lateral vane 

 and so ultimately reach, by the scent, an insect which 

 makes no sound. 



We have hinted that the plumage is beautifully 

 mottled. The colours are numerous, consisting of 

 black, brown, rust-colour, ash-colour, and white, with 

 a large white spot on the inner web of the three first 

 quills, in the male bird only. The mottlings in the 

 upper part are well made out in the figure which we 

 have given ; and the under part is rusty brown, \\iih 

 waving cross bars of darker colour, and this con- 

 tinues to the extremity of the feathered parts of the 

 legs. 



What may be the meaning of the booming or 

 whirring noise which this bird makes when it flies, or 

 whether it be a voluntary sound, or merely produced 

 by the action of the air upon the wide gape and 

 elastic vibrissce, just as the humming of insects is 

 produced by the action of their wings upon the air, 

 we know not ; though the goatsucker is not voiceless 

 like these, but has besides various notes by which to 

 express its affections the same as other birds. 



This is not a very common bird in any part of the 

 country, but it is much more w'idely distributed than 

 several others of our summer visitants. It seldom 

 arrives in this country before May, and it continues 

 till about September. The lightness of its wings, the 

 peculiar character of its plumage, and its lightness 

 for its size, must render migration a very easy task 

 to it ; and it accordingly extends over great part of 

 the country, being found a considerable way north- 

 ward in Scotland, where very few of the warblers 

 extend their annual excursions. Though it feeds 

 on the wing, it nestles on the ground, and it spends 

 little of its time in the construction of an artificial 

 nest. Its eggs are deposited under some sort of 

 cover, grass, bushes, or the roots of shrubberies, as it 

 may rind most conveniently situated for its feeding- 

 ground. The eggs are only two in number, of a 

 white colour in the ground, and very finely marbled 

 with ash-colour and brown. The ground is also 

 very often its resting-place during those times when 

 it is not preying upon the wing. When thus resting 

 it crouches very close to the surface ; and, as its 

 colours are not easily distinguished from those of dry 

 clods, or withered herbage, it in general escapes 

 observation. It does not, however, always take its 

 rest upon the ground, but frequently on a branch of 

 a tree. It chooses a large and horizontal one in pre- 

 ference to a small one which grows erect ; and as,' 

 when in this situation, it remains motionless, one 

 may pass again and again without observing it. 



From the time at which this bird makes its appear- 

 ance in Britain, and the other temperate parts of 

 Europe, and that at which it retires, we may infer 

 that its special office in nature is to thin the numbers 

 of the larger beetles. In this it has a sort of rival 

 in the kestrel, which, though a hawk, handsome in its 



