PASSERINE. 263 
inner edge, and the external toe has but four phalanges, a conformation 
very rare among birds. Goatsuckers live solitarily, and never venture 
abroad, except at twilight, and in the night during fine weather. They 
hunt Phalenz and other nocturnal insects, and lay a small number of eggs 
on the bare ground, without taking any pains in the construction of a 
nest. The rushing of the air into their immense mouth, while on the 
wing, produces a very peculiar humming sound. There is but one spe- 
cies in Europe, 
Capr. europeus, L.; Enl. 193. (European Goatsucker). Size 
of a thrush; of an undulated greyish-brown, mottled with blackish 
brown; a whitish band reaching from the bill to the back of the neck. 
It builds in the furze or long grass, and lays only two eggs. 
America produces several of these birds with a round or square 
tail, one of which is as large as an owl, Caprim. grandis, Enl. 325 ; 
and another, C. vociferus, Wils. V, xli, celebrated on account of 
its loud and peculiar cries in the spring of the year*. One of them 
is found in New Holland. 
There are some also in Africa}, part of which have a pointed 
tail {, and others, whose forked one affords an additional indication 
of the affinity between this genus and that of the swallows§. There 
is even one in America, the forks of whose tail are longer than the 
body||; the middle nail of these fork-tailed species is not dentated. 
One species, likewise from Africa, but with a round tail, is very 
remarkable for a feather twice the length of the body, which arises 
from near the carpus of each wing, and is barbed only near the end: 
the Caprim longipennis, Shaw, Nat. Miscell. 265. 
Popareus, Cuv. 
The Podarges have the form, colour, and habits of the Goatsuckers ; 
but the bill is stouter, and there are neither membranes between the toes, 
nor is the middle nail dentated**. 
P. Cuvieri; P. cendré; Vieill. Galer. 123. Variegated with 
ash, whitish and blackish colours; size of a Rook. 
P. javanensis, Horsf. Jav. Red, varied with brown; a white 
band along the scapulars. 
P. cornutus, T., Col. 159. Red, varied with white; large tufts 
of feathers at the ears. 
* Add Capr. virginianus, Edw. 63, or americanus, Wils. V, xl, 1, 2, which appears to 
me at any rate very nearly allied to the guyanensis, Enl. 733; it has been confounded 
with the vociferus ;—Capr. carolinensis, Catesb. 8, Wils. VI, liv. 2, a species very closely 
allied to that of Europe;—C. jamaicensis, Lath., Syn. II, pl. lvii;—C. rufus, Enl. 735 ; 
—C. semitorquatus, Enl. 734;—C. cayennensis, Enl. 760;—C. acutus, Enl. 752;—C 
Nattereri, Col. 107 ;—C. diurnus, Pr. Max., Col. 182;—C. mystacalis, Tem. 
+ C. infuscatus, Ruppel., pl. vi;—C. isabellinus, T. Col. 379;—C. eximius, Ruppel. , 
Col. 398. 
t C.climacurus, Vieill. Galer. 122. 
§ Capr. furcatus, Cuv. Vaill. Afr. 47;—C. pectoralis, Id. Ib, 94. 
|| C. psalurus, Tem. Col. 117, 151. 
** M. Vigors considers this subgenus as connecting Caprimulgus with Ulula. 
