CAPEIMULGIDiE, GOATSUCKERS. 



179 



the Upupidai or hoopoes, the Coraciidce or rollers, with their allies the Leptoso- 

 matidce, of Madagascar. 



III. PICI — comprising only thi-ee families, the lywjidai, or wrynecks, with one 

 genus and four species, of Europe, Asia and Africa ; the Picumiiidw, with one or 

 two genera and nearly thirty species, chiefly American ; and the Ptddm or true 

 woodpeckers. The digits are permanently paired by reversion of the fourth, except 

 in two tridactyle genera ; there is a modification of the lower end of the metatarsus, 

 corresponding to the reverse position of the fourth toe, and the upper part of the 

 same bone is perforated by canals for flexor tendons. The basal phalanges of the 

 toes are short. The wing has ten primaries, with short coverts, contrary to the rule 

 in this order ; the tail ten rectrices, soft and rounded in lyngidm and FicumnidcB, 

 rigid and acuminate in Picidce, where also a supplementary pair of spurious feathers 

 is developed. The nostrils vary : they are large and of peculiar structure in lyn- 

 gidm, usually covered with antrorse plumules in the rest. The bill is straight or 

 nearly so, hard and strong, acute or truncate, the mandibles equal ; the tongue is 

 lumbriciform, and very generally extensile to a remarkable degree, by a singular 

 elongation of the bones and muscles. The salivary glands have an unusual devel- 

 opment, in the typical species at any rate. The sternum is doubly notched behind. 

 A very strongly marked group ; in some respects it approaches the Passerine birds 

 more nearly than other Picarice do. 



/Suborder CYP8ELI. Oypseliform Birds. 

 See p. 178, where some leading characters of the group are indicated. 



Family CAPRIMULGIDiE. Goatsuckers, 



So called from a traditional superstition. Fissirostral Picarice. : head broad , 

 flattened ; eyes and ears large ; bill extremely small, depressed, triangular whea 

 viewed from above, with enormous gape reaching below the eye, and generally with 

 bristles that frequently attain an extraordinary development ; nostrils basal, 

 exposed, roundish, with a raised border, sometimes prolonged into a tube. Wings 

 more or less lengthened and pointed, of ten j^rimaries and more than nine second- 

 aries ; tail variable in shape, of ten rectrices. Feet extremely small ; tarsus usually 

 short, and partly feathered ; hind toe commonly elevated and turned sideways ; front 

 toes connected at base by movable webbing, and frequently showing abnormal ratio 

 of phalanges ; middle toe lengthened beyond the short lateral ones, its claw fre- 

 quently pectinate. A definitely circumscribed, easily recognized group of about 

 fourteen genera and rather more than a hundred species, of temperate and tropical 

 parts of both hemispheres. It is divisible, according to the structure of the feet, 

 into two subfamilies, Podargince, chiefly Old World, with the normal ratio of 

 phalanges, and Caprimulgince, as below. Considering, however, other points, 

 particularly the shape of the sternum, a more elaborate division is into Podarginm, 

 phalanges normal, but tarsus naked and lengthened, and sternum doubly notched, 

 with three genera of the Old World — Nyctibiince, phalanges normal, tarsus short, 

 feathered, sternum doubly notched, upper mandible toothed, containing one genus 

 of tropical America — Steatornithinm, phalanges normal, sternum singly notched, 

 with one genus of tropical America — and finally Caprimidginoi, comprising the rest 



[Note. An erroneous sequence of two genera having been discovered since the liey was printed, and there- 

 fore too late to rectify the numbering, Gea. H2 and Geu. 113, will be found next after Gen. 125.] 



