382 CAPEIMULaiD^. 



Suborder CAPRIMULGL 

 Pam. CAPRIMULGIDai. 



The Goatsuckers, under which name these birds are commonly known, like the- 

 Swifts, are found nearly throughout the tropical and temperate portions of the globe. 

 None occur in the colder regions of either the northern or southern hemispheres, and 

 they appear to be absent from the islands of the Pacific Ocean eastward of the Solomon 

 Islands. 



The members of the family Caprimulgidse are, as a rule, easily recognized by 

 characters both of structure and plumage ; the allied forms Podargidse and Steator- 

 nithidse, which were once included under the same family, being removed, the remainder 

 constitute a uniform group, divisible, like the Swifts, into two subfamilies by the 

 structure of the foot, 



Mr. Hartert, in his Catalogue of the Caprimulgidse, recognizes nineteen genera ; of 

 these Caprimulgus is common to both the Old and New Worlds. Of the remaining 

 eighteen genera, thirteen occur in America only, all but two of which are Neotropical. 

 In Mexico and Central America seven genera are represented : one of these is the 

 widely spread Caprimulgvs ; Phaloenoptilus, a North-American genus, occurs in Northern 

 Mexico ; Otophanes is peculiar to Northern and Western Mexico ; Nyctidram/us, 

 Stenopsis, and Nyctibius are all southern forms ; and Chordeiles extends its range both 

 into North and South America. 



Subfam. CAFBIMULGINM. 



In this subfamily, which includes all but one of the genera of American Caprimul- 

 gidse, the outer toe has only four instead of five phalanges, the claw of the middle toe 

 is pectinated, and there are no powder-down patches on the body. 



a. Rictus setts fortihus armatus. 



CAPRIMULGUS. 



Caprinmlgus, Linnseus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 346 (1766); Hartert^ Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xvi. p. 521. 

 Antrostomus, Nuttall, Man. Orn. ed. 3, p. 729 (1840) ; Sclater, P. Z. S. 1866, p. 136. 



The Common Goatsucker, Caprimulgus eurqpceus, the oldest and best known of the 

 whole family, is the type of the genus Caprimulgus as defined by Linnseus, the name 

 being derived from older writers. 



In 1840, Nuttall separated the American from the Old World birds under the name- 



