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CASSELL'S BOOK OF BIRDS. 



THE RESPLENDENT GOATSUCKER. 

 The Resplendent Goatsucker (Caprimulgus eximius) is a most beautiful bird, inhabiting 

 Northern Africa, remarkable for the brilliancy of its plumage, which is almost entirely of a bright 

 golden hue, marked upon the head, breast, and back with oval spots, and upon the wings and tail with 

 streaks of a somewhat deeper shade ; the throat, vent, a spot upon the pinions, and the tips of the 

 exterior tail-feathers are white. Riippell, who first discovered these birds in Bahiuda, tells us that 

 they frequent vast steppes, and that their gay plumage blends most deceptively with the yellow 

 stubble and light sand which abounds in their favourite haunts. We ourselves have often met with 

 them in Cordofania. 



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THE EUROPEAN GOATSUCKER (Caprimulgus Eitroptzus). 



The BRISTLED NIGHT JARS (Antrostomus), indigenous to America, are recognisable by 

 their long, flat beak, which is hooked at its tip, by their prominent tube-like nostrils, and the ten stiff 

 strong bristles, of about an inch in length, that grow at the base of the upper mandible, and can be 

 lowered or raised at pleasure. The second or third quill exceeds the rest in length ; the tail is long, 

 but comparatively narrow, more rounded at its tip, and the plumage is also thicker, and composed of 

 smaller feathers than that of such of their congeners as we have already alluded to. 



THE WHIP-POOR-WILL. 



The Whip-poor- Will [Antrostomus vociferus), so called from its peculiar cry, is about nine 

 inches and one-third long, and seventeen and a half broad ; the wing measures seven and a half, and 

 the tail five inches. The upper parts of the body are dark brownish grey, spotted with brownish 

 black ; the region of the cheeks is brownish red, the wing-covers and quills are dark brown, spotted in 

 lines with a paler tint, the latter tipped with a mixture of both shades ; the four centre tail-feathers 



