252 CHELIDONES. 



them across the widest sea or desert that is in their way, or 

 even from England to Africa, in the course of one flight. 

 Swifts are often seen driving at the smaller birds of prey, as 

 if in derision of their less rapid flight ; but they are not quite 

 so furious against them as the swallows, within whose pro- 

 vince those birds more frequently come.* 



THE WHITE-BELLIED SWIFT (Cypselm 



This bird has been found as a rare straggler, near Margate, 

 in Kent. It is considerably larger than the common species, 

 being between nine and ten inches in length, and it is different 

 in the colour brownish, with the belly white. 



THE GOAT-SUCKER (Caprimulgus Europaus). 



Few birds have more names than the goat-sucker, and yet 

 there is not a very good one among the number. The MOTH- 

 EATER (Phalancevara europcea) has been suggested. Goat- 

 sucker does not apply, as, from the impossibility of closing 

 the bill at the sides, the bird cannot suck anything ; but some 

 of the other names (night-jar, for instance) are even worse. 



On the plate at page 46 there is a figure of the bird, about 

 one-third of the lineal dimensions, from which some notion of 

 the form and also of the colours, which from the minuteness 

 of the markings are not easily described in words, may be 

 obtained. It may be noticed, however, that the sexes are 

 distinguished by the male having oval white spots on the 

 inner webs of the first three quills and of the outer tail 

 feathers. 



* The genus Cypselus is more remote from the swallows than natu- 

 ralists until recently have acknowledged. In the shortness of the limnerus, 

 in the form of the os furcatum, and in the absence of a notch at each 

 side of the posterior and of the sternum, there is an approximation to the 

 humming-birds. Bonaparte places the families Cypselidce and Trochi- 

 lida close together; the Sirundinidce forming a distinct family. There 

 is no such order as Chelldones. M. 



