THE GOATSUCKERS. 



369 



Batrachostomus* popularly known as "Frog-mouths;" their place is taken in Australia and New 

 Guinea by the giants of the family the Podargi, examples of which are generally to be seen in the London 

 Zoological Gardens. Of the Tawny-shouldered Podargus (P. strigoides^} Mr. Gould gives the following 

 account : " Like the rest of this genus, this species is strictly nocturnal, sleeping throughout the day 

 on the dead branch of a tree, in an upright position across, and never parallel to, the branch 

 which it so nearly resembles as scarcely to be distinguished from it. I have occasionally seen it 

 beneath the thick foliage of the Casuarincc, and I have been informed that it sometimes shelters itself 

 in the hollow trunks of the Eucalypti, but I could never detect one in such a situation ; I mostly found 

 them in pairs, perched near each other on the branches of the gums, in situations not at all sheltered 

 from the beams of the midday sun. So lethargic are its slumbers, that it is almost impossible to arouse 

 it, and I have frequently shot one without disturbing its mate, sitting close by ; it may also be knocked 

 off with sticks or stones, and sometimes it is even taken with tjhe hand. When aroused, it flies lazily 



COMMON GOATSUCKER. 



off, with heavy flapping wings, to a neighbouring tree, and again resumes its slumbers until the approach 

 of evening, when it becomes as animated and active as it had been previously dull and stupid. The 

 stomach of one I dissected induced me to believe that it does-not usually capture its prey while on the 

 wing, or subsist on nocturnal insects alone, but that it is in the habit of creeping among the branches in 

 search of such as are in a state of repose. The power it possesses of shifting the position of the outer 

 toe backwards, as circumstances may require, is a very singular feature, and may also tend to assist 

 them in their progress among the branches. A bird I shot at Yarrundi, in the middle of the night, 

 had the stomach filled with fresh-captured Mantis and Locusts (Phasmidce and Cicadce), which seldom 

 move at night, and the latter of which are generally resting against the upright boles of the trees. In 

 other specimens I found the remains of small Coleoptera, intermingled with the fibres of the roots of 

 what appeared to be a parasitic plant, such as would be found in decayed and hollow trees. The whole 

 contour of the bird shows that it is not formed for extensive flight or for performing those rapid evolu- 

 tions that are necessary for the capture of its prey in the air : the wing being short and concave in 

 comparison with those of the true aerial Nightjars, and particularly with the Australian form, to which I 

 have given the name of Eurostopodus. 



* MTS>Z\OS, a frog ; 



a mouth. 



t Owl-like. 



