THE GOATSUCKER. 109 



of their marking, that a description of one might nearly answer 

 for all. 



This species is one which has come down from antiquity to 

 the present time, loaded with many of the strange prejudices 

 of the ancients ; all equally as preposterous as the tales of 

 the fabulous roc, or the ideal regeneration of the phoenix, 

 handed down from Rabbinical tradition. 



In the infancy of research after nature, this bird was ac- 

 cused of injuring the teats of cows and goats, and depriving 

 them of their milk, for which in remote ages it received the 

 stupid name which it is still known by. Described by Aris- 

 totle under the name segothelas, a little larger than a black- 

 bird, and a little less than a cuckoo, it lays eggs, to the num- 

 ber of two or three at most, in the neighbourhood of the 

 mountain. Slothful in its nature, it flies upon the goats and 

 sucks them, whence the name ; after which the animal is 

 sure to die. It is similarly noticed by -ZElian. Pliny embellishes 

 its history with the fact of the goats becoming blind after 

 being sucked by this bird. Once prejudice exists, so difficult 

 is it to be removed, that in many places in England and Ireland 

 the inhabitants believe it still capable of the same power, and 

 also of infecting cattle with the cow-leech ! 



A more enlightened research in later times disproved 

 those strange opinions, and dispelled much of the darkness 

 which obscured natural history. But as the nightjar pos- 

 sessed a curious serrated claw, and numerous strong bristles 

 at the base of the bill, and being seldom seen or heard except 

 Curing the night, all this necessarily perplexed its describers, 

 who believed that the serrated comb on the foot served both 

 to hold its insect food, and to brush the remains of its repast 

 from the bristles on the base of the bill. It is now the re- 

 ceived opinion, that as many of the species are troubled with 

 parasites, the use of the pectinated claw may be to rid them- 

 selves of those unwelcome guests. 



The goatsucker, like the swallow, is a migratory visitor, 

 generally arriving with us towards the end of May or begin- 

 ning of June, and taking its departure at the end of August. 

 In Ireland it appears to resort to similar localities as in Eng- 

 land retired woods and plantations, but principally waste 

 lands, well covered with fern, furze, and heath. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of our city the only locality frequented by them ap- 

 pears to be Bray Head and some of the Wicklow mountains, 

 although, some fifty years since, they were regular visitors to 

 the banks of the Dodder, near Miltown.* 



* Mr. J. MCullogh. 



