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NATURAL HISTORY. 



THE TENTH FAMILY OF THE FISSIROSTRAL PICARIAN BIRDS. THE NIGHTJARS, 



OR GOATSUCKERS (Caprimulgidte). 



From the adjoining woodcut it will be seen that a Nightjar is indeed a Fissirostral, or wide- 

 gaping bird, and this large mouth is characteristic of the whole family. Their soft mottled plumage, 



their large eyes, and their habit of flying by night, have induced 

 many naturalists to place them in close proximity to the Owls, with 

 which family of birds, however, they have nothing further in 

 common. Members of the family of Goatsuckers are distributed 

 nearly all over the world, with the exception of the islands of 

 Oceania, and a great difference is observable in their size and 

 form, and to some extent in their habits. Thus the Guacharo, or 

 Oil-bird (Steatornis* caripensis), is met with only in the island 

 of Trinidad, where it is also called Diablotin, and where it inhabits 

 the inmost recesses of caverns, either by the sea or inland. The 

 birds spend the entire day in these dark recesses, and come out 

 only at night to procure their food, which consists of the fruits of 



different palms, the seeds of which are rejected, and form, with the droppings of the birds, a thick 

 flooring of guano in some of the caves. Sometimes the bird forms a huge cradle of this deposit, 

 apparently for the greater security of its young ones ; and one of these singular nests, if such they may 



MOUTH OF GOATSUCKER. 



be called, is exhibited in the British Museum. The nestlings become very fat, and are sometimes 

 eaten, but according to M. Le"otand, in his work on the Birds of Trinidad, there is a certain odour 

 about them which makea them unpalatable to the appetite of most people. 



In India and in the Malayan Archipelago is found a group of Nightjars belonging to the genus 



(TTeap, o"reuTO9, lilt , opw?, 8> bini. 



