CLASS II. AVES: ORDER 2. I'ASSERES. 81 



seeing these birds flying around the goats among the hills and rocks at nightfall, fancied that 

 they sucked their milk, and hence their popular name. Even the learned and philosophic Aris- 

 totle partook of this prejudice. In his Natural History he says: "The bird called JEtjothelas is 

 a mountain bird, a little smaller than the cuckoo. It lays two or three Q%g^^ and is of a slothful 

 nature ; flying upon the goats, it sucks them ; they say when it has sucked the teat it becomes 

 dry, and the goat becomes blind." This superstition continued with many people almost to our 

 own time. It is scarcely necessary to say that it is one of the thousand idle and mischievous 

 inventions which have sprung up in the long darkness of ignorance, but which modern science 

 ^^as dissipated. In the United States, few of these popular superstitions liave prevailed, because 

 they mostly originated in foreign countries long previous to the settlement of America, and be- 

 cause, also, the founders of society here were mostly enlightened people, little likely either to en- 

 tertain or perpetuate traditions and legends contradicted by their own observation and experi- 

 ence. It is a noticeable fact, that while among the rural populations of England, Scotland, Ire- 

 land, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, &c., a great variety of popular superstitions are in vogue 

 even to the present day, in respect to bees, birds, cattle, cats, dogs, (fee, they either never existed 

 among our native population, or are now almost entirely repudiated. 



Genus CAPRIMULGUS : Caprimulgus. — Tliis includes the Common European Goat-Suckek, 

 C. Europceus — the Culcabotto Pialtaglione^ Porta Qua(/Hc, and Cova-Terra of the Italians ; Tette- 

 Chevre^ Engoxdevent Ordinaire, and Grapaud Volant of the French ; Milchsauger, Geissrnilcher, 

 Nacht Babe, Nacht Schioalbe, and Tag-Schlafer of the Germans; and Goat-Sucker, Night-Jar^ 

 Jar-Owl, Churn-Otd, Fern-Owl, Dor-Haivk, Night-Hawk, and Wheel-Bird of the English. Its 

 color above is ashy-gray, thickly streaked and spotted with yellowish-brown ; beneath yellowish- 

 brown ; length ten inches. It feeds on insects, flies, moths, and beetles. Its powei-s of flight are 

 wonderful, exceeding even those of the swallows ; the jarring sound, which gives name to the 

 bird, is uttered sometimes while flying, but usually when it is at rest ; it seems to be produced in 

 the same manner as the purring of a cat, and resembles it, though much louder. One of them, 

 eraittino; this sound while sitting on the cross of a small church, communicated a sensible vibra- 

 tion to the whole building. It appears that goat-sucking is not the only crime laid to this bird. 

 White, of Selborn, informs us that "the country-people have a notion that the fern-owl, or churn- 

 owl, or eve-jar, which they also call a Puckeridge, is very injurious to weanling calves, by inflict- 

 ing, as it strikes at them, the fatal distemper known to cow-leeches by the name of puckeridge. 

 Thus does this harmless, ill-fated bird fall under a double imputation, which it by no means de- 

 serves : in Italy, of sucking the teats of goats, whence it is called the Caprimulgus, and with us, 

 of communicating a deadly disorder to the cattle. But the truth of the matter is, the malady is 

 occasioned by a dipterous insect, which lays its eggs along the chines of kine, where the maggots, 

 when hatched, eat their way through the hid.^ of the beast into the flesli, and grow to a very 

 large size." This bird is generally known throughout Europe, but is most abundant in the south. 

 It is migratory, spending the winter in Asia and Africa. 



The C. ruficollis is a North African species, sometimes found in Spain, where it is called 

 Samala. 



Genus ANTROSTOMUS : Antrostomus. — This includes several well-known American species, 

 among which is the Whippoorwill — C. vociferus of Wilson — A. vociferus : it is about ten inches 

 long, and is covered with feathers sprinkled and mottled with brown, red, black, and white ; the 

 tail with zigzag and herring-bone figures of black; across the throat is a band of whitish; the 

 breast black, powdered with ferruginous ; the belly of a lighter shade ; the bristles on the cheek 

 longer than the bill ; tail rounded. Though comparatively few persons have ever seen this bird, 

 it is almost universally known bv its cry throughout the rural districts of the United States. It 

 is migratory, arriving in the ^Middle States and New England in May; its song is now heard soon 

 after sunset, at first faintly and remotely, in the deep forests, but in a few evenings it grows famil- 

 iar, and issues from a neighboring copse, or the trees in the garden, or perhaps from the roof of 

 the house. The bird is now a regular acquaintance. Every morning and evening his shrill and 

 rapid repetitions are heard from the adjoining woods, an<;l when two or more are calling out at 

 the same time, as is often the case in the pairing season, and at no great distance from each other, 



Vol. II— 11. 



