290 AVES. 
and their toes united at base by ashort membrane. The thumb itself 
is thus united to the internal toe, and can direct itself forwards; the 
middle nail is often dentated on its 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 twi- 
light, 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, pro- 
duces a very peculiar humming sound. There is but one species in 
Europe, ' 
Capr. europzeus, L.3; Enl. 193. (European Goatsucker.) Size of 
a Thrush; of an undulated greyish-brown, mottled with blackish 
brown; a whitish band reaching from the beak to 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.(1) One of them is found in New Holland. A 
There are some also in Africa,(2) part of which gate a 
pointed tail,(3) and others a forked one, an additional indication 
of the affinity between this genus and that of the Swallows.(4) 
There is even one in America, the forks of whose tail are longer 
than the body:(5) 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. | 
(1) Add, Capr. virginianus, Edw., 63, or americanus, Wils. Y. 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. V, liv, 
2, a species very closely allied to that of Europe ;—C. jamaicensis, Lath., Syn. I, 
pl. lvii ;—C. rufus, Enl. 735 ;—C. semitorquatus, Enl. 734 ;—C. cayenensis, Enl. 
760 ;—C. acutus, Enl. 752 ;—C. Nattereri, Col. 107 ;—C. diurnus, Pr. Max. Col. 
182 ;—C. mystacalis, Tem. ; 
(2) C. "infuscatus, Ruppel., pl. vi;—C. isabellinus, T. Col. 379 3—C. eximius, 
Ruppel. Col. 398. 
(3) C. climacurus, Vieill. Galer. 122. 
(4) Capr. furcatus, Cuy. Vaill. Afr. 47 ;—C. pectoralis, 1d. Ib. 94. 
(5) C. psalurus, Tem. Col. 117, 151. 
