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



As this species is also confounded with whip-poor- 

 will, in many of the books, it is desirable to be in 

 possession of Wilson's highly discriminating 1 descrip- 

 tion of it. His accounts of the three North American 

 species of goat-suckers are indeed peculiarly interest- 

 ing, as placing in the clearest light the distinctions of 

 three of the most remarkable birds of that part ot the 

 world. " The night-hawk," says he, " is nine inches 

 and a half in length, and twenty-three inches in 

 extent ; the upper parts are of a very deep blackish 

 brown, unmixed on the primaries, but thickly sprinkled 

 on the back, scapulars, and head with innumerable 

 minute spots and streaks of a pale colour, interspersed 

 with specks of reddish ; the scapulars are barred 

 with the same, also the tail coverts and tail, the inner 

 edges of which are barred with white and deep 

 brownish black for an inch and a half from the tip, 

 where they are crossed broadly with a band of white, 

 the two middle ones excepted, which are plain deep 

 brown, barred and sprinkled with light clay ; a spot 

 of pure white extends over the five first primaries, the 

 outer edge of the exterior feather excepted, and about 

 the middle of the wing ; a triangular spot of white 

 also marks the throat, bending up on each side of the 

 neck ; the bill is exceedingly small, scarcely one- 

 eighth of an inch in length, and of a black colour ; 

 the nostrils circular, and surrounded with a prominent 

 rim ; eye large and full, of a deep bluish biack ; the 

 legs are short, feathered a little below the knees, and, 

 as well as the toes, of a purple flesh colour, seamed 

 with white ; the middle claw is pectinated on its 

 inner edge, to serve as a comb to clear the bird of 

 vermin ; the whole lower parts of the body are marked 

 with transverse lines of dusky and yellowish. The 

 tail is somewhat shorter than the wings when shut, is 

 handsomely forked, and consists often broad feathers ; 

 the mouth is extremely large, and of a reddish flesh 

 colour within ; there are no bristles about the bill, the 

 tongue is very small, and attached to the inner surface 

 of the mouth. The female measures about nine inches 

 in length and twenty-two in breadth ; differs in having 

 no white band on the tail, but has the spot of white 

 on the wing ; wants the triangular spot of white on 

 the throat, instead of which there is a dully defined 

 mark of reddish cream colour ; the wings are nearly 

 black, all the quills being slightly tipped with white ; 

 the tail as in the male, and minutely tipped with white ; 

 all the scapulars, and whole upper parts, are powdered 

 with a much lighter grey." 



South America contains many species of goat- 

 sucker, besides those which we have already enume- 

 rated, as paying their annual visit to the northern part 

 of that continent. In the warm regions of America 

 they are indeed highly characteristic birds ; and the 

 same may perhaps be said of them in Africa, and even 

 in New Holland, which, though rather scanty in its 

 mammalia, is a very remarkable country for the 

 numbers and character of its birds. We shall give 

 little more than a running catalogue of a few of the 

 goatsuckers of these parts of the world, beginning of 

 course with South America. 



C. comutus (the Urutau) is a species mentioned by 

 D'Azzara, as frequenting Paraguay from October till 

 February, which is the summer of the year in that 

 part of the world. It gets the name of cornutus, or 

 horned, from a tuft of feathers which grow over each 

 eye, and which fancy might convert into a species of 

 horns, in the same manner as the tufts upon the heads 

 in some species of owls are called by the same name. 



The upper parts of this species are brown, variegated 

 with russet, and a portion of the under part is of the 

 same colour but lighter. The belly is whitish. The 

 quills and tail-feathers are brown, barred across with 

 white. The throat, the fore neck, and the breast, are 

 russet, but with black points to the feathers of the 

 latter. The middle toe is without any toothing, and 

 the feathers of the head, just over the eyes, are si iff, 

 and form a sort of aigrette, from which the specific 

 name is taken. They are decidedly tree birds ; and 

 the natural historian of Paraguay mentions that they 

 are seldom seen on the ground, or indeed in any 

 situation except on the trees. They adhere to the 

 inequalities of the bark, in a style not very dissimilar 

 to that of the woodpeckers ; and they are rarely if 

 ever seen upon the ground. They come in pairs, 

 and breed in Paraguay, as indeed is the case with all 

 migratory birds, which invariably breed in those 

 places of their range which are most distant from the 

 equator. The pair keep closely associated during 

 the time that they reside in that part of America; 

 and though they sometimes settle upon separate 

 trees, they always, upon such occasions, call and 

 answer to each other in a peculiarly melancholy 

 sort of tone. The eggs are two in number, with 

 a pale brown ground, and thickly mottled with darker 

 spots of the same colour. The natural historian of 

 Paraguay says that these eggs are deposited not in 

 any sort of formal nest, but in a cleft of a tree, and 

 that the female hangs over them in the act of incu- 

 bation. Other reports state that the eggs are at- 

 tached to the tree by some glutinous substance ; but 

 there is probably no more truth in this than there is 

 in the similar allegation of some sea-birds gluing 

 their eggs to the rocks. The manners of these birds, 

 and indeed those of most of the South American 

 species of the genus, are, however, but little under- 

 stood. 



C. psalurus (The scissors-tailed goatsucker). This 

 is another South American species, for the first and 

 the only accurate account of which we are indebted 

 to the naturalist of Paraguay. He describes them 

 as being rare, and appearing in Paraguay only during 

 the middle of winter, which would lead one to con- 

 clude that the birds spend their summer in parts of 

 America still farther to the south. The upper parts 

 are ash-colour, mottled with brown and black ; and 

 the under parts are pale ash-colour, with black cross 

 bars. The sides of the head, and over the eyes, are 

 white, clouded with grey ; the throat and breast are 

 reddish grey, streaked with red and black ; and there 

 is a large band of bright yellow across the lower part 

 of the neck ; the coverts of the wings are beautifully 

 mottled with brown ash-colour, black and red ; the 

 outer web of the first quill is red, and the other quills 

 are chiefly grey ; the tail-feathers are also grey, very 

 handsomely marked with black ; the two lateral 

 feathers of the tail are of great length, equal to one 

 and a half times the total length of the bird ; they 

 are very handsome, broad in their webs at the basal 

 part, but tapering off gracefully toward the points ; 

 the feathers next them are gradually shorter until the 

 middle of the tail is arrived at, in which again the 

 feathers are rather longer, though still short as com- 

 pared with the external o"nes ^ the length of the bird, 

 exclusively of the tail-feathers, varies from fourteen 

 to sixteen inches. The female is smaller than the 

 male, has the colours less intense, and the external 

 tail-feathers not nearly so much produced. This 



