THE GOAT-SUCKER. 267 
curious little puffs of white down, and the Barn Owl is so prolific, that it has 
been known to be sitting on one brood of eggs while it is feeding the young 
of a previous hatching. 
As may be supposed from its popular title of White Owl, this species is 
very light in its colouring. The general colour of this bird is buff of different 
tints, with grey, white, and black variegations. The head and neck are light 
buff, speckled slightly with black and white spots, and the back and wings 
are of a deeper buff, spotted with grey, black, and white. The tail is also 
buff, with several broad bars of grey. The facial disc is nearly white, be- 
coming rusty brown towards the eye, and a deeper brown round the edge. 
The under surface of the male bird is beautifully white, the claws are 
brown, the beak nearly white, and the eyes blue-black. The sexes are very 
similar in their colouring, but the females and young males may be distin- 
guished by the under surface of the body, which is fawn instead of white. 
GOAT-SUCKERS. 
WITH the owls closes the history of these birds whick are called predaceous, 
although to a considerable extent nearly all birds are somewhat predaceous, 
even if they prey upon smaller victims than do the vultures, eagles, falcons, 
or owls. Next to the predaceous birds come the Passeres, distinguished by 
their cereless and pointed beak, their legs feathered as far as the heel, their 
tarsus covered in front with shield-like scales, and their sligthly-curved and 
sharply-pointed claws. This oider is a very large one, and embraces a vast 
variety of birds. 
First among the Passerine birds are placed the Fissirostres, or cleft-beaked 
birds, so called from the enormous gape of the mouth, a structure which is 
intended to aid them in the capture of the agile prey on which they feed. 
The GOAT-SUCKERS, as they are familiarly termed, from a stupid notion 
that was formerly in great vogue among farmers, and is not even yet quite 
extinct, that these birds were in the habit of sucking the wild goats, cows, 
and sheep, are placed first among the Fissirostres on account of the wonder- 
fully perfect manner in which their structure is adapted to the chasing and 
securing of the swift-winged insects on which they feed. The colour of all 
these birds is sombre; black, brown, and grey being the prevailing tints. 
The gape of the mouth is so large that when the bird-opens its beak to its 
_ fullest extent, it seems to have been severely wounded across the mouth, and 
the plumage is lax and soft like that of the owl. 
There are many well-known proverbs relating to the power of calumny, 
and the readiness with which an evil rcport is received and retained, notwith- 
standing that it has been repeatedly proved to be false and libellous. - The 
common GOAT-SUCKER is a good instance of the truth of this remark, for it 
was called Azgothéles, or Goat-sucker, by Aristotle in the days of old, and 
has been religiously supposed to have sucked goats ever afterwards. The 
Latin word caprimulgus bears the same signification. It was even supposed 
that after the bird had succeeded in sucking some unfortunate goat, the fount 
of nature was immediately dried up, and the poor beast also lost its sight. 
Starting from this report, all kinds of strange rumours flew about the world, 
and the poor Goat-sucker, or NIGHTJAR, as it ought more rightly to be 
called, has been invariably hated as a bird of ill omen to man and beast. 
As usual, mankind reviles its best benefactors, for there are very few crea- 
tures which do such service to mankind as the Nightjar. Arriving in this 
country in the month of May or June, it reaches our shores just in time to 
