Birds. 445 



near here, the ring ouzels appeared in some abundance on the 8th of September last, 

 they remained about the neighbourhood until the 19th, after which none were seen. 

 In a few specimens that were shot, the white was much more observable than in those 

 birds which were killed when they passed this place in their spring migration. — T. 

 Mansell, Naturalist ; Farnham, November 3, 1843. 



Note on the Goatsuckei' or Night-hawk. In the month of July I had brought to me 

 a pair of " night-hawks" as goatsuckers are provincially termed in Kent. They were 

 quite young, and had been found at the foot of a tree, with an egg^ which was also 

 brought to me. It is generally supposed that the goatsucker lays only two eggs; this 

 however was an instance to the contrary. Being desirous of rearing them, I fed them 

 with flies and other insects, which at first they appeared to thrive on, but after a little, 

 from some cause I could never quite understand, they began to droop, and finding 

 they were gradually sinking, Skilled and stuffed them. Wishing to obtain a speci- 

 men of the full-grown bird, I proceeded one evening to the wood from which the young 

 ones had been taken, and after waiting a short time, I observed a pair of goatsuckers 

 (probably the parent birds), hawking round an oak, close to the spot described to me 

 as the place the young had been found in. I succeeded in shooting them both, and 

 found they were male and female ; they are now with the young ones in ray cabinet. 

 It is perhaps needless to remark that this bird derived its name from the ancient and 

 ignorant idea, that it sucked goats, which is in the same degree probable as that hedge- 

 hogs performed the same kind office for cows ! Although not a rare bird, yet from its 

 habit of flying only in the evening and at daybreak, it is not very generally observed. 

 There is something very peculiar in the appearance of the goatsucker when sleeping 

 in the day. I recollect once shooting at what appeared to be a rat, crouching on the 

 large arm of a high cherry-tree, but which, upon its falling to the ground, proved to 

 be a goatsucker ! It is a constant habit of these birds to perch lengthways, with their 

 head lowest, that is, inwards to the tree. They are not unfrequently found squatting 

 on stone-heaps, when they look not unlike a lump of old wood or bark covered with li- 

 chens. There is a peculiarity about the foot of the goatsucker, the middle claw being 

 serrated, the exact use of which has not, I believe, been accurately determined. White 

 thought it was to assist the bird in taking its prey, he having observed it take beetles 

 with its claws and convey them to its mouth. Wilson, on the other hand, supposed 

 this claw was used as a comb, to keep in order the bristles which grow on either side 

 of the upper mandible. While others imagine it to be used for the same purpose as 

 the pectinated claw of the night-heron {Nycticorax europaus), namely, to free the bird 

 from vermin in those parts which it is unable to reach with its bill. Is it improbable 

 that it may be used for all these purposes ? Goatsuckers arrive in this part of Kent 

 about the second week in May, and generally take their departure by the beginning of 

 September. Their common note is somewhat between hissing and buzzing, which has 

 been said to be in imitation of the low notes of beetles. As I was returning home be- 

 tween 11 and 12 o'clock one brilliant moon-light night in August last, my attention 

 was attracted to a bird, which flew up before me from the road. I soon discovered it 

 was a goatsucker. It several times settled at no great distance, and I observed that it 

 lay almost flat in the road. I at first supposed the cause of its settling to be that it 

 might the more easily dissect some large beetle ; but upon watching it I found it was 

 evidently dusting itself, after the manner of domestic fowls. I am not aware if this 

 trait in the character of this bird has been noted. So far from the goatsucker deserv- 

 ing the bad character which was so long attached to it, I cannot but look upon it as a 



