84 caprimulgid/l:. 



it is impossible to place them immediately alter the 

 birds of the former family without doing violence to 

 the general arrangement. They usually lay their 

 eggs upon the bare ground without any vestige of a 

 nest, beyond a mere depression on the surface. 



GENTS XLIV.— CAPRIMULGTS Auctorum.GOATSrc KER. 



Rostrum valde depressum, | Beak greatly depressed, the 

 apice adunco ; mandibula ji tip hooked ; the lower 



mandible with its tip re- 

 curved. 

 Anterior toes connected at 

 the base by a membrane, 

 the lateral ones equal ; the 

 hinder toe slender, versa- 

 tile. 



inferior apice recurvata. 



Digiti cnitiei basi membra- 

 nula coaliti, laterales 

 aequales ; pollex gracilis, 

 versatilis. 



A. Cauddfurcatd. A. Tail forked. 



Sp. 1. Cu. psalurus. Azara. Temm. PI. Col. 157- male; 158. 



female. 

 Ca. capite, collo corporeque supra nigricantibus nigra mac id 'at i s ,• 



infra rufesccnte ; occipite rufo ; alis nigricantibus rufo-albo 



variis; caudd valde Jiircatd. 

 Goatsucker with the head, neck, and body above dusky, spotted 



with black; beneath reddish ; the occiput red; the wings dusky, 



varied with reddish-white ; the tail very much forked. 

 Scissors-tailed Goatsucker. Lath. Gen. Hist. vii. p. 348. 



Inhabits Paraguay. Distinguished from its con- 

 geners by the very extraordinary conformation -of its 

 tail : this part is composed of twelve feathers, the 

 two middle and the two lateral feathers being con- 

 siderably elongated, the outer ones especially, which, 

 in the adult male, are several inches longer than the 



